Could the Albert Lea school referendum have gone the other way if all the &uot;yes&uot; voters had gotten to the polls?&t;!—-&t;.

Wednesday, November 07, 2001

Could the Albert Lea school referendum have gone the other way if all the &uot;yes&uot; voters had gotten to the polls?

The school district thinks it may have been possible, based on phone calls made to every parent in the school district – all 6,000 of them. Most of them told callers they’d vote yes.

But the fact is, all the people who said they’d vote clearly didn’t do so, and the results will stand as the asserted will of those who were most motivated to get to the polls. For that, they deserve credit.

The &uot;no&uot; voters were clearly passionate about their beliefs, more so than the non-voters who must have been more casual in their support. The people who felt most strongly about the school referendum are the ones who swayed the outcome.

The voter turnout, 53 percent, was excellent, especially for an election with only one item on the ballot. This is no surprise, since Freeborn County has always been a very high voter-turnout area. Austin was happy with their 39 percent turnout, which goes to show how reliable Albert Lea voters are.

The school will tell you that the results will not bode well for education in this area. A school that has already cut $10 million from its budget – that’s right, the budget is $10 million lower than it was 10 years ago – there isn’t much left to cut without getting into visible and popular programs.

At the same time, it’s truly a shame that schools like Austin and Rochester could manage to pass their referendums, even though the numbers clearly demonstrate they need it less. Albert Lea was the only district in the area that didn’t support its schools. It’s not hard to see what kind of message that sends about our community.

Is it fallout from the school bond referendum that paid for the new high school? To listen to the objections voiced by voters, it seems that’s probably at least part of it. Likely, voters only feel comfortable approving money for schools – for any purpose – a limited number of times before they say it’s enough.

Others probably believed that a &uot;yes&uot; vote was pointless, because with enrollment falling, cuts were going to be inevitable eventually.

Now, those cuts will be coming sooner rather than later.