The following commentary appeared in the The Daily Sun.
In response to the letter from Marsha Hayward "Democracy requires an active participation of the people", there are some things to note.
Democracy is harmed less by small voter participation than by the misrepresentation of facts, whether deliberate or accidental. Increasing voter participation can scarcely lead to better outcomes, if those voters don’t actually understand the issues they’re voting on.
More importantly, freedom can be harmed by democracy, which is why the founders of our country were so careful to avoid setting one up. Instead, they created a constitutional republic whose powers are limited.
Hayward misrepresented the meeting and made an untrue statement that parents must setup homeschool pods or enroll in online classes to be educated. Regarding the HB 1393 budget cap bill, that is a two- or three-year process to install. The cap may be a nice idea but will only works if the voters want it to work. Someone who reads Hayward’s letter and takes its claims at face value is less prepared to participate in democracy because of the fictional representation of the facts.
It is also interesting to hear people complain that one relatively small group (taxpayers) has managed to use the exact same technique that another relatively small group (parents) have been using for decades.
Croydon did not pick a number out of a hat, they researched and found other schools in the area were educating students for under $10,000 while the public schools’ cost is closer to $17,000. Croydon is looking into a private company to operate their public school (I find this interesting and should work).
This has nothing to do with Free Staters. Facts matter and too many times people pass on mis- or disinformation which causes a bad bill to pass or a good person missing out in winning a race. We all need to do better. I contacted the Croydon School Board chair to get the information I am passing on to you in this letter.
John Sellers
Bristol
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