Soda tax for pre-K won’t fix our education crisis

The soda-tax battle promises to bring out a record number of voters for this special election on May 2, but it also has the potential of leaving lasting divisions in our City Different. I do believe we are rushing into an inequitable tax without proper planning.

As a 30-year Santa Fe resident and lifelong Northern New Mexican, my background includes founding New Mexico’s largest health foundation (Con Alma), and I was also the national chair of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), the top civil rights organization in the country. I believe my experience and many years of public service at the state and national level has some relevance to the discussion.

Some pro-tax groups want to claim the moral high ground, saying it will improve people’s health and fund pre-K education for 1,000 disadvantaged children. Others say that the tax is not moral if the majority of children and parents are hurt financially while many won’t pay the tax — that is discrimination. And resentment over this discrimination is growing.

It’s not fair that myself, like the mayor, who don’t buy those drinks will not contribute to the pre-K, but thousands of poor and working families and children who can least afford it will be saddled with this tax burden indefinitely.

Another casualty of the tax being debated appears to be the truth. In one pro-tax ad, the narrator says: “The tax will only cost two cents.” This is far from true; (because it is assessed per ounce) in some cases, the tax will cost more than the drink.

And it’s much too simplistic to say that sugary drinks alone will make healthy children. No doctor or health professional would make this claim; their entire diet and exercise program needs to be part of the prescription. A recent Harvard study reports that diabetes, heart disease and premature death is linked to too much sitting! Should we impose a tax on too much sitting? The absurdity of this notion applies to taxing a sugary drink.

Similarly, a pre-K program will not guarantee that those children will succeed without fixing the underlying crisis in our education system. It’s like adding another chair on the Titanic. Our sinking education ship needs intervention remedies. A good program, be it a good pre-K or a good reading program, will not fix our education crisis.

A former U.S. education secretary says that given the course we’re on, it will take more than 100 years to eliminate the gap between Hispanos, Native American and black children with their white counterparts. This demands an intervention plan that includes input of all stakeholders. This can’t be fixed with a Band-Aid solution like pre-K . ...

What we don’t want is to reopen bad wounds between locals and recent arrivals. Voting down this tax can help us rethink a more equitable approach that does not penalize the poor, and parents and children. We need an approach that is comprehensive, and has the full participation and acceptance of those most affected by this tax. ERIC P. SERNA Former state insurance superintendent, Santa Fe