I'll tell you who won, -- democracy won. You presented a question to the public and they gave you an answer. This was not a referendum on Pre-K. It was a referendum on Sales Tax Increase on a poverty ridden community. It was a question on having an independent body, not elected by the public to make decisions about public funds. Let's be clear. The question was not did we want Pre-K? If that had been the question, I am certain that would have passed.
This community is just getting over the shock of what it meant to merge two school districts and the lost of jobs and opportunities. As a result of that decision, we have a firm from Knoxville on contract cleaning schools and some of our former school board employees who were performing those tasks are now unemployed. We have employees who were making living wages, and now barely making minimum wage. We have people who can never be more than 30 hour a week employees because companies are trying to avoid giving them benefits, so they have to find a second job. We have senior citizens, not on food stamps, buying grocery with pennies because 1/2 cents does matter. So, certainly, the public wants to ask questions, get answers that make sense before they vote.
Who Won? You won. As officials, you won, because now you can go back to the drawing board and design another plan that addresses the answers given to you by this public. Find a way to fund and expand our Shelby County Schools' Pre-K program. I suggest that you work with the County and Shelby County Schools in developing that plan.
Who won? We Won. Now, we know that the Greater Memphis Chamber is committed to Pre-K and they should lead the effort to ask the City Council to amend the Ordinance to release public education funds from PILOTS as an investment in their future workforce. (However, I plan to ask how much money has the Chamber received from the City of Memphis the last couple of years, and if any of those funds were used on this effort.)
Who won? Children Won. Because the public's answers to the referendum questions bring us closer to a solution for our children, if your egos get out of the way.
Remember, democracy is not a spectator sport. Therefore, we win when the people speak. I really think that who won was the wrong question. We should ask "what will WORK for our community" given the answers we received from our public.I encourage you to value that input, rather than demean it.
