Dewey Defeats Millage!
Posted by BKisida | Education, Fayetteville, AR, Politics | September 15, 2009
Reports are coming out that the nays have it in the Fayetteville millage election. After reporting early numbers via twitter that made passage look like a slamdunk (1,175 for and 630 against), Alan Wilbourn is now tweeting that the unofficial vote total is 4,085 for and 5,954 against. Over ten thousand Fayetteville residents cast ballots on the millage issue. That is quite a turnout for a special election. The table below provides a breakdown of the voting numbers.
| Early | Sept. 15th | Total | % Early | % 15th | % Total | |
| For | 1,175 | 2,910 | 4,085 | 65% | 35% | 41% |
| Against | 630 | 5,324 | 5,954 | 35% | 65% | 59% |
| Total | 1,805 | 8,234 | 10,039 | 18% | 82% | 100% |
Here is The Morning News article about the election.
The proposal to build a new high school failed to get voter approval. So, what happens now? Check back later today tomorrow (Sept. 17th) for some good riffing on this very topic.
Back to the drawing board. Hopefully the district will learn from this experience and come up with a more reasonable plan.
Ah, Democracy. I spent several weeks studying this issue, talking with my lefty and righty friends…talking with educators and education researchers…smart friends and…well, dumb friends…and also ACTUALLY doing a little bit of RESEARCH learning about the relationship between shiny new school buildings and higher levels of academic achievement. After all of this, I came to my decision…only to have the precinct captain inform me that I actually live in the Farmington School District.
I agree with the Beatles original drummer above in that I hope Fayetteville learns from this vote and drafts a new plan that may sway more voters in their favor.
Most quotable:
“There is no Plan B.”
“Dewey beats Millage!” seems backward somehow.
The head line originally said “Dewey beats Truman” but Truman won.
Sign me confused.
Larry: You’re right of course, but somehow I think most people would have missed the subtelty of that distinction and would have thought that the millage passed if I had written “Millage Defeats Dewey.”
Yeah I saw that problem–in fact it had to soak a while before the hey-wait-a-minute sequence fired off.
Ona global scale not the most significant journalistic license violation this week.
Cheers!