Vote NO on Measure H

The following OrangeJuiceBlog.com post by Mission Viejo resident Robert Reidel was forwarded by a reader. View the entire article and other comments at http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2010/08/another-good-capo-lawsuit-defending-measure-h-by-area-elections

Capistrano Unified School District is ONE school district encompassing many cites and unincorporated areas. As bad a shape that the school district is in, it can get worse. Voting yes on H is an example of something we can do that can and would make the state of CUSD worse.

My reasons for advocating NO on Measure H are simple:

1. Measure H will not provide better local control. The entire body of 7 Trustees makes the decisions for all of CUSD, with a simple majority of 4 Trustees making the vote that impacts YOU! This means that easily and often 4 of the 6 Trustees that YOU had no vote for and had no say in will make the decisions/votes that impact YOU and YOUR family. This is NO representation. The 1 Trustee YOU had a vote in can be outvoted to the detriment of YOU and YOUR family each and every time on matters ranging from school district policies, to curriculum, to allocation of financial resources. This is NOT better local control, like the advocates for this measure say.
2. Saving $200,000 [election cost] is a lot of money. However, in context it represents only about 0.03% of CUSD’s annual budget that they’d have to set aside for the election to keep it as is. For CUSD, this amounts to about $1.00 per registered voter per election and about $0.17 for EACH of the Trustees that you would not be able to cast a vote for. Really now. I’ve served in our armed forces, as many others have and do. Personally, it upsets me to think that my fellow Americans would be willing to sell out so cheaply on something as fundamental to our freedom as the right to vote for an elected official for 17 CENTS! Elections cost. That is a cost of doing business that many of our fellow Americans have paid and are paying that price in blood for. This is not a freedom or right that we should relinquish so cheaply! In the interest of saving money, we may as well start increasing the terms of our elected officials or making them lifetime appointments, to get rid of those costly elections. I don’t think so!
3. The group of individuals that have pressed for this change wanted the current Trustees to strip these 6 of 7 votes from us, without even letting us voters, parents and taxpayers decide. What’s that say for the agenda of these folks, when they wanted and tried to effect this change without even letting it come to US to decide! They have attacked the current Trustees for voting down effecting this change on their own, and forcing it to go to the voters. We have the right to decide on this, and I sincerely hope that the majority of my fellow citizens see beyond the rhetoric, and grasp just how bad this can be. When the 1 Trustee YOU voted for is outvoted every single time and on key issues that matter to YOU, YOU are NOT going to feel that you are very well represented or have much in the way of local control.
   
   Also, consider the Trustees this election that you choose to vote for, and where they stand on this matter. I say that because if Measure H is voted down like I pray it will, other Trustees may replace current Trustees, that believe they know better than us and take another vote on this to effect the change on how we elect Trustees (regardless of what we previously voted!).
4. CUSD has Trustees areas. The Trustee areas were designed to spread where the Trustees come from throughout the district; however, since they all impact us, we currently vote for each and every Trustee. By changing it to where you ONLY vote for 1 Trustee, YOUR Trustee, it only follows for that Trustee to put the interests of those that elected him/her first and foremost. This approach may well not work out for all the areas of CUSD. We follow this model of representation at the County, State and Federal levels (and many areas do not fare well by this with winners and losers), but this is a unique model for Local communities. At the County, State, and Federal levels, votes/decisions are often made that disenfranchise other voters/taxpayers, as backroom deals are made and decisions are made on where to spend scarce resources. I do not believe we want this approach for our school district, where the ones that pay the price are students and children. Within CUSD, there is already a gross inequity in facilities across the district that was due to the prior Board. This occurred because too many of us were not watching. Now, everybody is watching, so there is a group that wants to change how we elect Trustees to better facilitate the ability to raid some areas of funds to disproportionately allocate those funds to other areas (the disparity in school facilities across the district and disproportionate funding of facilities across the district proves this).
   
   Shall we then also agree it is appropriate to break cities up into city councilman/councilwoman areas, such that we only vote for ONE? Again, this body makes decisions that impacts the entire community it represents. This is one steep and slippery slope that some would have us step on, with no assurances or checks and balances in place to prevent disenfranchising some of our fellow citizens within our community. This is a bad idea.
   
   When you call an elected official’s office, some of the first questions asked [of you] are: where do you live, are you in their area, are you one of their constituents, etc.. I believe that it follows that elected officials do not care so much about what others think that can’t and won’t be voting for them!
5. Recalling Trustees will be far easier. Whether that is for the good or bad will likely depend on the Trustee, and the reasons. However, Recall elections cost us the taxpayers each and every time. I am not of the opinion that we should make it easier to Recall an elected official. As we have seen, we can find ourselves in a tit-for-tat situation where a motivated group of swing voters can effect a Recall, and we can do that over and over again at taxpayer expense.
6. The advocates for changing how we elect Trustees have said we need to change how we elect Trustees, because CUSD has become too big. Fine. The answer for that is to break up CUSD then, and truly give each individual area the true local control and local representation of their schools. This way, each area maintains control of their funds, and can set appropriate policies for their community. However, if CUSD is broken up, other areas wouldn’t be able to raid them of their fair share of funds. This and other reasons certainly present possibilities on why the advocates behind this agenda have not put this option forward. Their only answer for providing better local control and better representation is to strip 6 of our 7 votes from us, with nothing to ensure we will be better for it, except to tell us to trust their school Board candidate/politician! I do not find this acceptable.

Vote NO on Measure H.