The tenor of new coverage after last week suggested that voters reared up against school district tax ballot issues – that schools were getting no traction. Closer looks even then suggested the picture was more complex. But a look back at a recent post on Betsy Russell’s Spokesman blog shows this:

A preliminary report on supplemental levy elections in held in school districts around the state compiled by the Idaho State Department of Education shows that of 36 school districts holding supplemental levy votes on Tuesday, 27 won passage from local voters, while nine failed, including, notably, one in the state’s largest school district, Meridian. That means 75 percent passed. The last round of school district supplemental levy votes was on March 8; according to the department’s figures, 29 districts held votes then, and 27 passed with just two failing. One of those two, Boundary County, went back to its voters on Tuesday, and this time, they passed the proposed $1.4 million levy.

All told, that means that this spring 65 of Idaho’s 115 school districts asked their voters to raise their own property taxes to add to the school district’s operating funds, and in 54 of those districts – that’s 83 percent – voters said yes.

The voters are approving paying for what their legislators declined to.