Dear Editor:
The bond is a bad idea for the following reasons:
While SWOS is busy pointing out a hole in the classroom floor, we should note that facilities can be repaired and/or remodeled for a fraction of the cost.
$10 million is a ridiculous amount for new facilities for such a small campus. Government projects usually involve highly inflated cost numbers.
The problem with our schools in general, locally and nationally, is not the facilities, but the curriculum. No amount of fancy facilities will replace an inadequate curriculum, low standards, lack of focus on basic subjects, and short classroom times.
Testing in the 1920s and 1930s, before governments and unions started micro-managing education, was far more demanding and yet, much education in those days was done out of one-room school houses.
If facilities are the key to academic success, why do home-schoolers, sitting around a kitchen table, test better than public school students? Private schools usually have much more modest campuses, yet they also score better.
While one part of our dysfunctional school system cuts the school week to 4 days to save on heating/air conditioning and fuel costs, another part sees nothing wrong with spending millions to build more facilities.
The taxpayer is pitted against organized interests who benefit from taxpayer-obligated expenditures and who spend tax money sending out promotional materials to convince us to give them even more tax money!
SWOS is asking all voters to agree to spend this money, yet only a certain portion of the voting public (i.e. landowners) will be obligated to pay it back.
If this bond passes, the rest of the school system and other tax-supported county institutions will likely be lining up their own bond proposals. Isnt that the usual story? Government budgets never have enough money, while the taxpayers usually have plenty more to give.
While spending ever more money, education quality has been going down for decades. Complaining about facilities is an excuse for poor educational policies. Instead of asking for more money, we need a reformed school system.
Steve Jennings
Pleasant View
Via e-mail
