March 15, 2013
Friday PM

At the March 4th Ketchikan Borough Assembly meeting, dozens of concerned parents, teachers, students, and citizens showed up wearing green shirts to show their support for adequate education funding. Seventeen of those people went up to the podium and gave public comment, asking the borough to increase their proposed $7.7 million contribution to the school district. This amount is $600,000 less than what the district received last year, and, if realized, would result in probable cuts at all levels to art, music, libraries, technical programs, and much more.

Assembly Member Todd Phillips, speaking about the March 4th borough meeting, was quoted by the Ketchikan Daily News as saying, "What bothers me is when we get a boatload of people who come here and make all the statements that they did, and as far as I'm concerned, 90 percent of it was misinformation that was put out there."

Mr. Phillips' statement shows his disdain for the boatload of people who attended the assembly meeting. And when Assembly Member Phillips makes the claim that 90 percent of what these folks said was misinformation that was put out there, to what is he referring?

Is Mr. Phillips referring to Colleen Scanlon and Frankie Urqhuart's well-researched accounts of borough funding, reserve funds, and mill-rate reductions? Or was he talking about the many parents who expressed that they wanted more for their children than just the basics ? Or was he talking about the teachers who explained first-hand what these potential cuts would mean in their schools? Or was he talking about the students concerns over the already reduced number of electives that are available to them? Or was he talking about the citizens who wanted to make sure that our future leaders and workers would be educated sufficiently for the responsibilities ahead of them?

I look forward to Assembly Member Phillips enlightening us all about the misinformation he feels he was subjected to during those public comments.

Sincerely,

Gerri Davis
Ketchikan, AK

About: "Mother, Teacher, Taxpayer, Citizen"

Received March 15, 2013 - Published March 15, 2013

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