SCHOOLS: Yes, repairs are needed

I am a fiscal conservative, former home-schooling mom and strong critic of improper expenditures of taxpayer dollars on certain educational issues. However, I spent part of one school year working as a substitute teacher and it was the death knell for some previously held opinions.

How often have people sharing my perspective been frustrated at the teacher’s union claiming “It’s for the children” when it’s really about job security or better benefits? We’ve heard them cry “Wolf” so frequently we shut them out reflexively. That reflex must stop now because there is a bond levy coming up and it needs to be passed.

Two schools on the list, Winton and Canfield, were locations I was able to observe while working there and conditions are grim. Winton Elementary was built in 1928 and has not seen a major improvement in the last 30 years. There are genuine issues of student safety involved, not the least of which is the need for simple air ventilation. The boiler room at Winton resembles something you’d see on a sub that’s been sitting on the ocean floor for 20 years. The electrical system is failing, an obvious danger. We aren’t talking about luxury, we are talking about keeping children in a safe setting.

This vote is about common decency and concern, it’s also about good fiscal sense. The bond does not raise taxes, it replaces two levies that are being retired. Interest rates are very low, construction costs are also low. Work on these schools would begin immediately and utilize the local workforce.

We owe it to the kids and ourselves to make these repairs.

LINDA COOK

Rathdrum