Once again this county resembles a house divided over a rather basic and simple-to-understand issue: Are the citizens willing to dig deeper (once again) to pay for new physical plants, teaching facilities, and equipment, and heaven forbid, athletic equipment.

I would suspect all voters, at least those who bother to read and comprehend what lies behind these issues, have by now grown tired of the same old rhetoric. Now it is “...we will lose the money, etc.” No one, at least none of our highly paid administrators and political leaders, have mentioned with any degree of realism the effect on those persons that this school system is supposed to be responsible for and to: The children.

By now many of you think this open letter is 150 percent in favor of these new taxes. Not so! There are far too many issues being laid in front of voters along with far too reasonable and practical explanations. Just to itemize a few: Of course there are the planned modifications to the press boxes, bleachers, fieldhouses and the terribly interesting generic use of the word “renovations.” Then there is the banal talk of planning for the “future students who will move here” — talk that is approaching an almost religious fervor in some quarters. Eleven million plus dollars is the amount quoted for this little part-time activity. That buys a lot of beans, folks.

Security devices absorb their share of proceeds from this wishing well. Whatever happened to the best of all such devices, parental discipline and control over their own offspring, both at home and at school? All of a sudden our teachers seem to be nominated to serve as 8- to 10-hour-per-day parents in addition to all of their other duties.

It is regretful that this proposal isn't limited to exactly what is needed: Space and certainly improvements in the actual plant itself — up to a point. But in their effort to force this issue, our educational leaders have added on that great catch-all, sports equipment and all its ramifications.

It is past the time to train semi-professional sports players and amateur scholars and it is time to raise scholars who will be able to read and understand history and who will understand the ethics is not just something that the other guy must have — these students must have it before they graduate. It is time to place sports in the perspective where it belongs, physical training for the love of the sport, not the worship of the dollars it could bring.

Dr. John DeCotis mouthed the statements of alarm and doom made by our school board that, among other things, there may be year-round school and even, again heaven should forbid, double school sessions. So?

What has happened to the specter of “impact fees?” It is politically expedient not to require new students to be both legal residents and financially supportive members of the school community? Must we accept the state's failure to provide impact fee schedules for schools?

There are other alternatives for funding schools that should be investigated. When the Fayette County School Board and its agents decide to stop living their unrealistic dreams with our money, maybe we will listen to your pleas.

I submit that the plea for yet another round of tax increase is a full admission of defeat on the part of school officials and the parents who support the “let someone else do it” theory. For those of you old enough to recall when school was school and athletics was an after-school volunteer activity and helmets and gloves were passed down from brother to brother, from sister to little brother, etc., try and remember the classic story of the now defunct Gechee bird. It can't be reprinted here but most of you will remember what happened to it. The very same and identical fate will result from one or two or three more tax increases. Do not let this happen!

Vote No! But whatever else occurs on Tuesday, Sept. 21, please go to your poll and vote!

S.A. Sparks
Fayetteville

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