THE CHILDREN'S  INVESTMENT FUND

A group of Spokane citizens is making an effort to get a petition on the ballot to raise taxes for helping Spokane youth.

The plan is similar the ones in Portland and a few other cities.  And as is obvious, it is a mom and apple pie issue.  So who should object?

Well, first, let us look at this fact.  Few, if any, voters will read the actual proposed ordinance before they sign the initiative.  I know this from personal experience.  While the solicitors may have the full text with them, signers are on the fly and do not want to take the time to read it. Then once it reaches the ballot, there will be no text, only the title.

There will be a body of eleven citizens who decide where this money goes.  Four of these will be at-large and some others are what  I will call quasi-at-large.  Now one of the most active groups putting this campaign together is the Spokane Alliance, which is made up of mostly labor unions and churches.  It seems to me likely that a fair number of these at-large positions could end up filled by folks affiliated with this or that church.   And so tax money could end up being filtered to groups with a religious bent.  Not good.

 Now isn't the above a silly quibble where our children's future is at stake?   Some will say that.  I don't want to debate the issue here but it brings up the point of what this program will accomplish.  Here are some examples of trouble: One of the major claims is that it will decrease the drop out rate.  Well, The Spokesman recently  had an interesting article showing that the school district itself has been  hopelessly confused about just what is meant by drop out.  The state has rushed to the rescue - somewhat.  But some confusion seems to have lingered.  So how are we going to  measure success?

An Alliance hand-out quotes this so-called fact: Children who attend preschool  are 17% more likely to complete the 12th grade.  Now, this is could be a classic example of confusing correlation with causation.  One can not be certain without more information on the study. 

The law states that money will only be given to agencies with track records (I assume this means good track records).  Well, if we have agencies with track records, how did we get into these alleged dire straits?

I do support help for our youth, but I could use a better thought out plan than what we may be looking at if this gets on the ballot.   And I think the school district is being given too much of a free pass as to their responsibility.