Say Anything Blog

I’m so excited.  I get to make my first attempt at Fisking.  The Fargo Forum had an unsigned editorial today attacking Duane Sand and the North Dakotan Chapter of American’s for Prosperity.  I can’t see how they could have done a worse job. 

Duane Sand, the North Dakota mouthpiece for the misnamed out-of-state organization, Americans for Prosperity, doesn’t like Gov. John Hoeven’s school funding/tax relief proposal.

This is the North Dakota chapter of a national organization.  They have a North Dakota office, run by North Dakotan natives that raise most of their money in North Dakota.  I’m trying to remember when if ever the Forum got their panties in a wad like this over the fact that the North Dakota Democrats get 70% of their money from out of state? Or that our Democrat representatives don’t live here and only come her to campaign?

By the 2010-11 biennium, the state would fund 66 percent of public education, while local taxpayers picked up 34 percent, which would account for required dollar-for-dollar property tax relief.

The Fargo Forum’s a pretty big outfit.  Apparently they’ve done NO homework of school funding.  According to a spreadsheet that I pulled down from the state’s website the Federal Government provides 14% of the school funding.  So the REAL breakdown will be the state 66%, the federal government 14% (or around there) and the local tax bite will be 20%.  Of course that’s a state wide average and it will vary by how greedy the local school boards have been.

If anything shows the vapidity of the Fargo Forum editorial staff that’s it.  I’ve got a full time job but I’ve taken the time to do my homework.  With all the resources of the largest newspaper in the state they don’t understand a basic component of the system and overstate the local burden by around 70%.

He equates increased money from the state with decreased local control. But the only “control” in the governor’s initiative would be a requirement that school districts lower property taxes by the same amount they receive in new money from the state. Given the anti-tax ideology of Sand’s fringe organization, he should applaud a mechanism that lowers taxes without penalizing local school budgets.

Notice the “fringe” word.  There’s an old saying if you can’t attack the message (that Hoeven’s plan is flawed) then you have to attack the messenger.  They can’t argue it on facts, heck as we’ve already seen they don’t understand the facts so they’re left to engage in school yard name calling.  That’d be one thing if we heard it from one of the leftie blogs, but this is the largest newspaper in the state.

The problem with Hoeven’s scheme is that it won’t work in the long run.  Nothing in his plan is going to keep local school boards from resuming their big spending ways.  The only way to control that is to take away local control.  Personally we should have local control, but if we’re going to bail out the locals then we need to take away their ability to increase spending.

[H]is complaint about the salary of the new school superintendent at Grand Forks, N.D., contradicted his finger-wagging concerns about local control. Sand said Larry Nybladh’s salary of some $179,000 was too high, was four times the pay of the highest-paid teacher and showed the irresponsibility of the Grand Forks School Board....

First, his worry about the state usurping local control seems hollow when he’s beating up Grand Forks school officials for making a local decision about superintendent’s pay.

Did Sand suggest the state should limit his pay?  No, all he suggested was that the state’s taxpayers not be stuck with the bill.  If you ever want to see irresponsible spending wait until the state acts as the taxing entity while the school boards are allowed to spend to their hearts content.  We’ll get even more irresponsibility.

It would have been nice if the Forum would have troubled themselves to include a few facts.  Like the fact that the Grand Forks School Board advertised and Nybladh applied for a $165,000 position.  In a fit of spending someone else’s money they managed to overpay him by another $14,000.  The other fact that the Forum should have included is that $179,000 is about 40% over the regional average for school superintendents.  Even the Forum should be able to spot the irresponsibility.

Second, the superintendent at Grand Forks has historically been one of the highest-paid or the highest-paid in the state. Salary levels in the past, and now with Nybladh, were set by local folks. If the people of the Grand Forks district didn’t like it, they had ample opportunity to vote out the school board. They did not.

What does the historical practice have to do with anything.  There’s absolutely no justification to continue to overspend because of what you’ve done in the past. 

The Governor’s funding scheme is designed to bail out the local school boards just as the citizens are waking up to the mismanagement of our school districts. 

The Forum’s screed went on to denigrate Sand’s political record without acknowledging the difficulty it is to run against an incumbent in North Dakota.  Apparently it’s not enough to disagree with someone.  They have to resort to childish name calling.

Meanwhile, North Dakotans should be very cautious about taking seriously anything Sand’s “prosperity” sect preaches. Thus far, his pronouncements have been contradictory, ill-informed and apparently disdainful of North Dakota’s historic commitment to funding excellent public schools.

“Sect"… “Preaches” Apparently the Forum wants to paint the North Dakota Chapter of Americans for Prosperity as some kind of cult or something.  What they are is an organization that provides facts and figures with their official source data and gives their opinion based on that.  If ever there was someone talking about their beliefs its the Forum.  They haven’t disputed one fact and their opinions are full of holes.  Even to the last sentence they’ve got it wrong.

North Dakotan’s have been committed to excellent public schools, but always at a price we can afford.  Historically we’ve been both money and education wise.  Governor Hoeven wants to throw more money to the education administrators and faculties without showing that it’s necessary.