COMMENTARY: Me, Myself And My Money

BROAD SUPPORT FOR SCHOOLS KEY TO STRONG COMMUNITIES

What if every street and highway had a toll gate on it?

Clearly, it would cause a few clogs in the transportation system, but it would be a system by which only the people who use each street would be expected to pay for it.

That’s fair, isn’t it? Why should I be asked to pay taxes to pave your street if I’m never going to use it?

Ridiculous? I think so, but it’s not unlike the arguments I hear about public education.

Last week, the debate over building a second high school in Bentonville, which has inflamed many a discussion in recent years, was doused with a new set of data.

The school district is trying desperately not necessarily to fi nd what is needed, but to discover what voters will accept. Last week, they released results of a postcard survey mailed last month to 9,630 voters who participated in the district’s June 26 bond issue election.

The vote would have increased the millage rate charged against local properties and used it to build a second high school with athletic facilities, district wide upgrades to technology and heating and cooling system improvements.

That 6.7-mill increase failed at the polls.

So now, Bentonville school officials are pondering every piece of information they can get to figure out how to ask for a project the community can support. The survey showed a huge majority (59 percent) supporting a second high school at a lower cost than the $128 million plan that was on the ballot last June.

Another 24 percent said they wouldn’t support any solution that involved a tax increase. Seventeen percent said they did not support a second high school, but would support an alternative.

Creation of a better academic environment demands a second high school. Preservation of certain extracurricular activities prompt some to fight to keep one powerhouse high school.

That navel-gazing is a big political football in the expansion debate.

Whoops. I said football, didn’t I? Sorry about that.

I know Bentonville’s smart enough not to let that get in the way of the academic success of its students. I misspoke, as our politicians like to say.

The school district’s effort is a healthy but frustrating process. It will all work out, assuming the people who vote within the school district are not so blinded by self-interest that they cannot discover the common ground necessary to serve the community’s children.

That’s a big assumption, at least if you believe some of the critics of the school district’s efforts.

On NWAonline.com, our news website, several readers posted comments on our story about the Bentonville survey. The most shocking, to me anyway, was the assertion that people who don’t have children in school should not be expected to pay for public schools at all, much less a tax increase for expansion.

What a selfish viewpoint, but that’s OK. We’re all selfish to some extent. I simply suggest we all benefit from having strong schools in our communities.

Think about industries that open within our communities. Their leaders know they need happy, contented employees.

Are they going to move someplace that lacks a good education system? If not, there go those jobs that pay some of these folks who say “don’t tax me.”

Researchers have also demonstrated that there’s a strong correlation between good schools and good communities. One assumes even a tight-fisted penny pincher who only wants direct benefits from any taxation wants to live in a good community.

Similar research demonstrates schools play a vital role in creating a network of concerned residents who respond to community needs. None of us should want Bentonville or any other town to just be a bunch of self-oriented individuals. It’s not a community without a strong sense of community, and schools are vital to that.

So vote no, if you want, because you don’t like the project.

Vote no, if you must, because you don’t believe you can afford the tax bill.

But please, do not accept the selfish, myopic belief that unless you’re getting a direct benefit, you shouldn’t provide financial support to raise up a new generation of leaders.

Public schools are a cornerstone of every strong community. That’s worth an investment even if the direct return is a little more difficult to discern.

Where would any of us be if we all embraced a “what’s in it for me” approach to civic involvement? That’s a road I really don’t want to go down.

GREG HARTON IS OPINION PAGE EDITOR OF NWA MEDIA.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 01/14/2013

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