The Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) is now history, at least for the moment. We can be assured that it will return, or something like it, in the near future. The one reality of living in Fayette County is that growth is going to occur. A significant number of those voting seemed to believe that by denying the school district this financing vehicle, growth will somehow be discouraged here. It is unfortunate that the schools and the students in the county must pay to perpetuate this myth.

There are so many issues at work here that it is extremely difficult to keep one's focus when writing a summation about the defeat of this referendum. One can talk about the apathy of the voters of the county, only 21 percent of whom felt moved to turn out at the polls for this vote. One can talk of the scare tactics used by the knee-jerk opponents to all taxes here who contacted the vulnerable senior citizen population with the bogus news that this sales tax would somehow increase their taxes by 40 percent. One can talk of the fact that, of all the metro counties, Fayette currently has one of the lowest sales tax rates. One can mention that, while priding itself on its school system, citizens here could not accomplish what counties like Clayton and Newton did, i.e., voting to approve more money for schools (Newton by a whopping 92 percent to 8 percent).

Ultimately, the price for this shortsightedness will have to be borne by our existing schools, some of which are very overcrowded already.

The reality of the situation is that, with a growth rate of 1,000 students per year, our county must be building a school every year, just to keep up with the growth.

The reality of the situation is that it takes five years to build a high school from start of planning to completion.

The reality is that Fayette County High School is looking at 2200-2300 students within that five-year time-frame. The reality is that, while bemoaning the lack of security and the threat of violence in our schools, the voters chose to pack our existing schools even further, creating more overcrowding. The reality is that our campuses will continue to look like trailer parks.

The school district must step up and accept the challenges caused by the “educated” electorate. We must drive home the point that education is not something on which the people of Fayette County can automatically depend.

The alternatives are there. If more preconstructed teaching units are not the answer, then we must explore other solutions. We must go back to the voters and sell them on our product. We can no longer take public support of education for granted as we have in the past.

We must fight to keep our excellent school system as a priority for our citizens. The future of the students in this county is at stake and we cannot abdicate our responsibilities to them, no matter what obstacles the public puts before us.

J. Peter Lewin
Fayette County High School teacher

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