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PUSD parcel tax
Tim Hunt’s anti-tax crusade purposely misleads on the facts. Not only is he factually wrong – PUSD’s last attempt at a parcel tax was 2011 and was just 297 votes shy – but he calls into question board members without acknowledging the changing nature of California school funding, which is part of the problem with “cash flow”.
Living in a city that has been slow to grow has limited Pleasanton’s ability to qualify for more state funding. If we cannot continue to increase enrollment, we lose out on funds. It’s that simple.
In addition, none of the current board members hired David Haglund, the person most responsible for leaving a legacy of overspending on district facilities and staff. They inherited the mess left by past board members who rubber-stamped Haglund’s directives.
My wife and I were teachers in 2009, the first time Pleasanton rejected a parcel tax, and my wife was laid off for an entire year. Instead of the community funding the schools that have made their properties so valuable, teachers had to take furloughs to continue to provide the excellent education that prop up the inflated property values.
Maybe if Pleasanton wasn’t so anti-teacher and anti-tax, we would not be in the position we are in now.
– Sam Weaver
Hope
In “The Shawshank Redemption”, Andy Dufresne writes to his friend Red, “Hope is a good thing…” Hope can be a powerful force that sustains us during chaotic times; like the times we all find ourselves in today.
I’ve witnessed acts of kindness recently that have instilled hope that we and this country will endure beyond the current dark times:
* Rep. Eric Swalwell, went to Mexico to visit his neighbor and our neighbor, Miguel Lopez, who was illegally detained and deported by ICE a few months ago and who has been separated from his family since then. Miguel cannot be forgotten.
* Some colleagues and I canvassed several businesses on Main Street in downtown Pleasanton to ask if they would display signs in their windows that read, “We support our immigrant neighbors.” Almost every business said yes.
• While knocking on doors to inform people of the upcoming special election and Prop. 50, I spoke to a courageous woman who had moved here from Texas. She knew about the election and supported the proposition and told me about her own canvassing days in the South for progressive ideas, where she often faced opposition and resentment.
There are more examples I could give. They happen a lot, we just need to look for them.
In doing so, recall a poem from Tennyson that Bobby Kennedy used to quote, “The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks. The long day wanes, the slow moon climbs, the deep moans round with many voices. Come my friends, ’tis not too late to seek a newer world.”
– Ward Kanowsky
