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COMMENTARY October 15, 2003 Union says Marysville parents have no standing Lynn Harsh | Evergreen Freedom
Foundation Responding to an injunction brought against the union and district by strike-weary parents, union attorney Mitch Cogdill said: "The parents have absolutely no standing to bring this lawsuit." They "are not real parties in interest to any dispute between the Marysville School District and the Marysville Education Association." This is amazing on two counts. Amazing that the union’s lawyer would be so brazen to argue publicly that parents should not have any standing in a matter that affects the education of their children. And amazing that he dismissed the precedent-setting 1983 Clover Park decision where a judge granted an injunction requested by parents to end a 21-day teacher strike. It seems Mr. Cogdill and the Marysville Education Association are saying parents and other taxpayers should continue paying for public education, but they should butt out if the union feels like withholding that education. What happened to the notion that local public schools should be run by the community representatives voted to the school board? What happened to the mantra that parents must be directly involved in the education of their children? One teacher on the picket lines, Bill Wright, says people "pay more to train their dogs and horses than they do to educate their children." Is that true? We allocate more than $9,000 in this state each year for every child’s education. Do folks really spend that much on their animals in Marysville? If Marysville citizens do not like the decisions made by their elected school board representatives, they’ll have a chance to say so when they vote this November. They can even replace them with the union’s handpicked candidates if they’d like. But in the meantime, the union shouldn’t be the schoolyard bully keeping classrooms closed and teachers on the picket lines, and preventing students from getting the education their parents are paying for. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Linda Krese will hear arguments in a motion for injunction brought by parents at hearing today at 1:00pm. Contact: Marsha Richards | Communications Director | 360.956.3482
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1 Part Honesty; 2 Parts Arrogance At a March 23, 2005, House Appropriations hearing on a bill to gut the voter-approved I-601 spending limit, Rep. Jim McIntire (D) asked a supporter of I-601’s two-third supermajority requirement for the legislature to raise taxes the following question: "Can you name a time when we [legislators] have actually not just set it [supermajority requirement] aside by majority vote? I mean, this is in many respects a procedural motion that has no bearing. It’s a statutory constraint that cannot constrain any legislature that chooses as a majority to set it aside . . . have we ever used a supermajority [to raise taxes]?" - Rep. Jim McIntire (D - 46) Despite the arrogance of some state officials, Washington's constitution is clear: "All political power is inherent in the people..." |
