EDITORIAL: Voter defeat of Amendment 66 only highlights the problem of troubled schools

In a world where most people make big and small decisions based on sound bites, trailers and slogans, Amendment 66 was doomed to fail.

Voters not only turned down the education-reform-income-tax-hike-income-tax-restructuring measure this week, they beat it to death. It failed 3 to 1 statewide. Ouch.

There was simply no way the complexity and subtlety of Amendment 66 could be explained in a handful of persistent TV commercials, which were late on the scene anyway. While extremist conservatives may be taking credit for the Amendment 66’s unquestionable demise, the measure self-destructed without the aid of a single critic.

The message to voters was that kids in school can play dodgeball in gym class if we all fork over another $10-$100 a month. Lost in the marketing campaign are the dozens of reasons why we need to increase funding to public schools, the dozens of reasons why we have no choice but to raise taxes and how an income tax hike is the best, fairest and most pragmatic way to get the job done.

The world we live in now hopelessly believes that everyone would do better if we just dressed every kid in a uniform and drilled them with readin’ writin’ and ‘rithmatic, and not much else. They just don’t understand how Johnny can’t read when he’s there in public schools already costing state taxpayers billions of dollars a year.

At this point in Colorado history, it’s difficult to believe that the state faces a more crucial problem that affects every one of us more so than the problem of students under-performing in public schools and increasingly being unable to afford state college.

We live in a world where the largest part of the public, about two-thirds of them in this case, want simple answers and explanations even if the problems are anything but simple and easy. Rest assured, in this case, they most certainly are not.

Amendment 66 was doomed to fail because the campaign to pass it was just that, a fleeting message trying to do the impossible: get people to raise income taxes for something that was never clear to begin with.

This isn’t the time to give up, this is the time to set out for a resolution to the problem in a year or two, because it will take that long to educate the public about how important this issue is, and how there is no answer to solving it that doesn’t involve raising taxes. By exterminating Amendment 66, Colorado voters didn’t just force state lawmakers to come up with another solution. What voters did is agree to let the problem continue. Students will continue to make little to no gains in performance. Unless there is a wholesale change in our society all across the state, where parents suddenly become hugely engaged in their children’s education and demand that it be the most important thing in their lives, then school districts here in Aurora and across the state will eke out the same mediocre results.

What’s lost on most of the public is how important a successful public schools system is to economic development, keeping all taxes low, reducing violent crime, helping reduce the cost of health care for all of us, reducing the need for expensive social services and making a better life for all senior citizens.

Statewide leaders need to start now to create an enthusiastic campaign to explain how this complicated issue is simply the most important thing that voters need to take care of in Colorado.