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Opinion: City candidates impact students

Opinion

Opinion: City candidates impact students

Colleges are unique institutions. For a multitude of reasons, most students are protectively isolated from the buzz of the wider world.

This isolation serves an admirable purpose — the pursuit of knowledge (or maybe not, as evidenced by the single-mindedness with which many students drink). However, this cloistering  can be taken too far.

Many of the choices that are made in the larger community directly affect students, and more often than not, students are completely unaware of these issues.

A particularly pertinent example is the upcoming local election. On the ballot are three open Coeur d’Alene City Council spots and one mayoral spot. Local elections are never the hype-filled, media-driven events that the larger, national elections are. However, the local elections are vitally important for local issues.

And this year’s election is especially important for NIC.

The three incumbent candidates were all advocates of the financing and building of the Educational Corridor. While the three challengers don’t explicitly state that they are against the Corridor, they are all pushing for lower property taxes.

The Educational Corridor’s only hope of succeeding is if it receives money from local taxes. Public education doesn’t work if there isn’t public support, in the form of money, backing it. So, while challengers Jim Brannon, Steve Adams and Dan Gookin won’t actually come out and say that they are against the Corridor, their proposed policies suggest an  effective discontinuation of  the necessary support.

While cutting back on spending in general isn’t necessarily a bad thing when it comes to education in particular there can be no compromises. For this reason The Sentinel is endorsing  incumbents Sandi Bloem, Mike Kennedy, Woody McEvers and Deanna Goodlander.

Opinions expressed in editorial and opinion articles are the views of individual NIC students. These views do not necessarily  reflect the opinions of the Sentinel, North Idaho College, or any other organizations or groups there-in. North Idaho College is not responsible for the accuracy of statements or opinions shared.

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