Setting aside the likelihood that the Grand Coulee Dam School District is not perfect, critics who argue that the fix is voting against its local funding are way off the mark.

When the Legislature changed the formula for basic education funding, getting dollares for this district became even more complicated than it already was, restricting funds in different buckets dedicated to specific uses, even more so than they usually are. But administrators here, like others across the state, have had to figure it out.

This year, the district is seeking what its leaders hope is reasonable, and it’s not much more than what it’s been getting the last four years, especially when you consider inflation as a newly looming factor.

But this levy vote is likely to be driven less by numbers and logic than by mood, and right now it’s ugly it out there. We’re all fed up. With everything.

Everybody gets that.

But cutting our local support for education makes about as much sense as defunding our local police departments to make them better cops. Or paying the utility less than it bills you because you don’t like the weather. Or burning down your house because the roof leaks.

A path more likely to produce better schools is to support them, both financially with continuing tax support, and through advocacy for what you want to see happen differently.

Voters should ignore whatever grey mood they may have slumped into this winter, and decide to push ahead to better days, continuing to support schools.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher