PACIFIC COUNTY CANDIDATE AND ISSUES FORUM

The Willapacific chapter of the AAUW held a candidates and issues forum Thurs Oct 18, in Longbeach Washington.  

Ballot measures regarding Same Sex Marriage, the licensing of Marijuana use and Charter Schools were up for discussion -  as speakers for and against the measures took their turns at the microphone.  

One audience question asked the speakers to comment on studies indicating children do best when raised by their married parents and if the gender of the parents should be a concern.  Jerry Sadler, speaking against the measure, spoke to the children’s point of view.

Sadler1.wav  “Children in a same sex marriage have to wonder why it is that I don’t have a father or why it is that I don’t have a mother.  This has got to be a confusing element for some of these children raised in a same-sex marriage.” (:19)

Supporter Steven Linhart said laws should support all families, regardless of the gender of the parents. 

Linhart1.wav “If we agree and I think we all do, that marriage law should protect children, then we should protect children regardless of how they came into their families” (:08)

Speakers for and against the initiative to license and decriminalize marijuana disagreed on the financial costs of the measure.  I-502 Outreach Director Tonia Winchester said the court system would realize savings with the end of prosecution for small amount possession.

Winchester1.wav  “In Washington State, between 2000 and 2010 we spent over two hundred and eleven million dollars enforcing small possession marijuana charges, and right here in Pacific County one point eight million dollars was spent in that decade.” (:13)

Former Pacific County Sheriff Jerry Benning said the costs of enforcement of DUII under the new law would hit small counties hard, particularly the costs of incarceration -  and jailing additional driving under the influence suspects would let more dangerous criminals go free. 

Benning1.wav  “When you have a small incarceration capability and all of a sudden you’re impacted by fifteen deewee convictions in a week, and you want to put that many people into jail, it’s not a violent crime, and you have other people that truly need to be in there a lot worse but they have to be put in, so that means somebody has to rotate out.” (:24)

The Charter Schools Initiative drew the most heated comments, as opponent and local high school teacher Mark Huber quoted a Stanford study citing a low success rate,

Huber1.wav “Of the 41 states with charter schools they have a seventeen percent success rate.  As a teacher seventeen percent doesn’t cut it in my classroom”  (:08)

 

Local charter school advocate David Fisher emphasized that education is not a one size fits all proposition, and referenced the same study to back his position.

Fisher1.wav  “It also said charter schools do a better job than traditional public schools of meeting the needs of struggling students, helping them stay in school, helping them graduate, helping them get prepared for education beyond high school.  Those are exactly the students that this measure is designed to help.” (:17)

Over 70 people attended the forum.  A one hour edited version will air on KMUN 91.9 FM Sunday, October 29^th at 7pm.