A sliver delivers for PPEL

Last week's Cedar Rapids School District vote on raising the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy, or PPEL, provides fresh evidence that voting matters, and individual votes can make a difference.

When the dust settled and the vote was certified Monday, the PPEL measure won by just 31 votes out of 6,497 cast, or 50.24 percent to 49.76 percent. Voting machine problems during Tuesday's vote prompted a recount last week of some votes, but it didn't change the narrow outcome.

That means Cedar Rapids' levy for facility repairs, transportation needs and technology upgrades will increase from the current 67-cents to $1.34 per $1,000 of taxable property value. The higher levy is expected to deliver an extra $3.5 million annually over the next decade.

That's good news. We endorsed the levy measure as a necessary step to help a district with many aging facilities keep up with a growling list of needs and repairs.

The bad news is that very few voters bothered to cast a ballot. The 6,497 votes this time was a significant increase from the 3,938 who voted a year ago to defeat a similar PPEL measure on the regular school board ballot. This time, a well-financed parents' committee was formed to support the measure and likely played a role in getting the word out and boosting turnout.

But that's still just 7.6 percent of the district's 85,734 registered voters. The fact that 7.6 percent is welcomed as a big improvement underscores how remarkably low our expectations have become regarding school elections.

Fact is, this was a very important issue, with the condition of the community's schools and the doubling of a property tax levy hanging in the balance.

Every property owner will pay, and yet it was approved by just 3.8 percent of the electorate.

School board elections fare even worse, despite the fact that board members preside over an important community institution and employer with taxing power that exceeds cities and counties.

We're open to any and all ideas for increasing interest and turnout.

Some have suggested school board elections should be combined with municipal elections, which tend to draw better turnout. Others have wondered about using technology to make voting easier.

Whatever the strategy, our schools deserve more attention than a handful of votes from a sliver of the electorate.

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