SCHOOLS: Accept the financial realities

A recent Press editorial asking people to listen before deciding on the school bond issue was written to the wrong crowd. It should have been written to the school board administration. Property owners need relief, not greater burden.

Consider this:

1. Ten percent unemployed. Another 2 percent out of work and benefits so long they are no longer counted. Workers over 55 are 30 percent unemployed.

2. Property taxes are up, while values are down. Record number of home foreclosures predicted in 2011. Twenty-three percent of home mortgages have debt greater than the home is worth.

3. At least four to five years until jobs are recovered. Even then, as now, those who find work will make less than their pre-recession income.

4. Income is down, while cost of living is up for everyone. Retirees are spending down savings accounts as interest rates hover at 0 to 1 percent.

5. Small businesses still closing, increasing number of vacant commercial properties.

Our own governor pledged to turn the emergency measures the state has taken into "standard operating practices" for the future. Why? He too expects this condition to be the new normal.

It's time for the local school districts to adopt some emergency measures of their own, rather than try to squeeze more money out of people who are in the middle of their own financial emergency.

RON LOVLYN

Coeur d'Alene