Why more taxes for education?

Re: Bruce Hetrick’s [Jan. 11 column] “Hey kids! Come and get your pound of flesh,” at first I was stunned. Then I was speechless. After that I was just plain mad.

In the first place, where does Hetrick come up with the right to speak for anyone but himself? He started this latest diatribe fuming that “we” have yet again failed to find the funds vital to teaching our children. Well, Mr. Hetrick, the part of “we” that includes “me” has seen our property taxes raise 130 percent over the last two years. I have watched this bounty shoveled into a local school system that spends over $13,000 per student.

The responsibility of education to our children has been hijacked by a teacher’s union that places more value on tenure than merit. To suggest that we taxpayers are at fault and the solution is to pour more money into this black hole is outdated and worse, political in nature. The time for the liberal theology that produces such a biased outlook has passed.

A few years ago the catchword in schools was “outcome-based education.” Well, the test results are in and the outcomes are clear. Days of school are no substitute for dedication, discipline and an old-fashioned idea of effort. We expect less and less of society and we are rewarded every day.

But to lay these outcomes at the feet of hardworking, tax-paying, God-fearing people is beyond the pale. The hypocritical wax-job comes from the media when an article such as yours talks about a shortchanged education for our children. Let’s really do something for our kids and break the teacher union, let Washington keep their money and programs and hand our schools back to an elected school board.

If you want to use me as your example of an “angry adult,” go ahead; but you and your leftist buddies at the Statehouse should know that “we” taxpayers have had enough.

____________

Mike Hutson