Instead of heading the Whidbey News-Times’ Nov. 17 article on the passage of the simple majority measure, ”School levies now easier to pass,” I wish the editor would have used, “School levy proposals to remain modest.” Superintendent Schulte and the school board, with union support, will respect the voters of our community by continuing to offer measured, responsible and necessary levies. The current maintenance and operations levy is a very small levy, about a fourth of what the school district could ask citizens to endorse and nowhere near the level of levy support routinely sought and received by school districts along the I-5 corridor. All educators throughout our state rejoice in the passage of the constitutional amendment that now allows school levies to pass with a simple majority. Not only is it an elementary issue of fairness — every vote for a levy should be counted equally with every vote against a levy — but passing the simple majority measure also says that voters understand that there are two parts in public education, the public and the educational system.

Rightfully, we spend much time and effort, taxpayer dollars and volunteered hours, helping students learn. That’s our job, our part. But the public has its job, its part, too, and it ranges from voting for levies, attending parent conferences, and volunteering in schools, to supporting pro-public education candidates for the state Legislature, challenging negative media representations of schools, and turning off talk radio hosts who are quick and wrong to disparage public education. An education isn’t something you get, like a meal at a restaurant. It’s a shared process, more like educators and parents and students and the larger community working together to prepare a meal.

With the passage of 4204, that process has been strengthened. Thank you, Washington voters.

Peter Szalai, president

Oak Harbor Education Association