“Call the Tune” by Mike Anthony

Executive Editor

news1@callnewspapers.com

You certainly can’t believe everything you read on social media.
Never was that more evident than during the months leading up to the April 4 election, as we saw numerous people make many, many claims without a shred of evidence to support them — not to mention the rampant character assassination of people posters disagreed with politically.
If we had a nickel for every inaccurate and inane social media post we saw during the recent election cycle, we’d be able to retire and live in style.
A prime example is a recent post on the Mehlville Community Taxpayers for Mehlville Facebook page that stated: “Perhaps, someday, the Mehlville/Oakville community (will) commit to Universal Early Childhood Education. High Quality ECE for All.”
A later post added, “Parents as Teachers and Head Start have been constant targets for cutting, and Universal ECE is yet to be implemented. Before Tom Diehl, Karl Frank, and Venki Palamand, there was no full-day kindergarten.”
Whoa! We don’t recall former Mehlville Board of Education members Diehl and Frank having anything to do with the approval of tuition-free, full-day kindergarten in the Mehlville School District. Interestingly, Frank is one of the administrators of the MCTM Facebook page.
After discussing the issue throughout much of 2012, the school board voted unanimously Nov. 28, 2012, to offer tuition-free, full-day kindergarten beginning with the 2013-2014 school year.
While Palamand was board president, neither Diehl nor Frank were on the school board. As readers may recall, Diehl and Frank were the architects of the disastrous 88-cent tax-rate increase, Proposition C, that voters unceremoniously trounced at the polls in November 2010.
Shortly afterward, Frank resigned his seat on the school board in a huff, while Diehl later decided wisely not to seek re-election. Their legacy of failure as board members has been well-documented.
So who is responsible for the approval of tuition-free, full-day kindergarten? Besides Palamand, those serving on the Board of Education included Katy Eardley, Ron Fedorchak, Larry Felton, Rich Franz, Elaine Powers and Mark Stoner.
We applaud them for approving what then-Superintendent Eric Knost initially proposed.
Like we said, you certainly can’t believe everything you read on social media.