The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

Taxpayers, if you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

Educators here are going to try again to get our levies passed. You wonder what it takes to convince people that educating young people costs money, and too long this district has operated by scraping the bottom of the barrel for its finances.

We ask teachers to come to our communities and prepare our youth for their future endeavors. Then we give all kind of excuses why we don’t want to fund the process.

The old excuse that “taxes are too high, or I don’t have any kids in school” doesn’t really wash.

The administration and school board members labor over these issues; they also pay taxes.

We do pretty well here with what we have, and the “nixers” need to understand that even if they prefer ignorance, it’s not good for the health of our nation.

I want to remind voters that we have a nice new school facility at no cost to local taxpayers.

Our recent superintendent, Dr. Dennis Carlson, can squeeze more out of a dime than anyone I know of.

He took state money and worked with the architect and general contractor and produced a remarkable new facility.

We call on all our administrators and school boards to work a certain degree of magic to keep our schools producing students we can be proud of.

While I have no way of knowing, I would bet that the overwhelming number of the levy “nixers” have never stepped foot in our school facility.

So, you didn’t play sports when you were in school and that’s where you would start cutting. People who take this view don’t have a very good understanding of our communities.

I remember my own father, who was talked into going to one basketball game and ended up going to a lot more. He hadn’t played sports when in school and no member of our family was currently playing, but he experienced a real buy-in.

Get a firsthand look at our schools before you vote on any levy question this fall. Call and arrange a tour. Walk the halls when kids are changing class, peek into classrooms and see how well students and classrooms are being managed.

Go to a sporting event and experience the fun of watching our students compete with other schools.

If you truly want to see improvements in our communities and the country, do your part in supporting our all-important work of preparing our youth for their future.

The cost is comparably little when you think of the benefits.