We will vote no on Proposition S

Dear Editor,

I was blessed by the two letters in the March 23 issue of the paper in opposition to Proposition S, wherein the Abele letter gave good reasons to vote "no" and the Cubbage letter gave a practical solution to utilizing the good buildings of the current NEVC schools and how to help fund a high school building by selling land for the proposed school site near Harwood and applying that money toward building a new high school building.

Incurring debt is never a good thing. National and personal debt have brought America to its current economic tumble: foreclosures, bankruptcies, unemployment, and because there is no other choice, family members moving in with other family members, currently at an alarming 49 million according to TV news today. Adding more taxes and debt, to local taxpayers under the current economic conditions and the new socialist health bill, is unwise.

Let me illustrate, for your readers can ditto the following. For years, a family related to me drove one vehicle because that was what they had and debt, being foreign to their ways, was not an option to purchase a second, though needed. It served this family of seven, including four teens. They managed until a second vehicle could be added, a pickup that is now 18 years old with 222,300 miles on it: be nice to upgrade, but not by debt. They will wait for better timing. So must the NEVC school system.

Make do with what you have got is their way of thinking and mine. This is how most folks in this area have to live, and it pertains to teachers and students as well.

President Garfield was self-taught by closely observing every thing around him, because he could not read until his wife taught him to read when he was in his twenties. He made the best of what he had.

Let's keep things in balance here. NEVC students can become the best in the buildings they currently have, with the current good teachers on staff. They have right now more than President Garfield had in his school-aged years.

My wife taught 12 years in a building, the state of which was not unlike the high school building at Walker, but the education of the youth did not suffer. A building does not educate youth; teachers and parents do. It is nice to have new, but not at the cost of raising taxes and incurring large debt.

I do not have much confidence in government (national in particular) these days: bribes to gain votes, corruption, criminal activity, adultery, socialism, lying, cheating, getting elected being more important than serving the people and not defending the Constitution, etc., are becoming the norm.

How does this equate to the NEVC schools? Proposition S appears to have the real possibility to be more costly than the ads supporting it suggests, if those opposing it are accurate in their accounting.

Finally, there are five Christian schools in the area that are educating children (56 students at Christian Heritage Academy alone, leaving four others to count) at costs in addition to the taxes their parents pay to support the NEVC school system. Why do they make this economic sacrifice? It boils down to the public school curriculum and environment no longer having the values of prior years, such as beginning the day with prayer and readings from the Bible; being void of sex education classes, not teaching evolution as truth, presenting a student body mostly lacking in drug use, fornication, bad language, and alcoholism and a bit of corporal punishment so that students know there is accountability for wrong behavior.

Now comes the NEVC school board seeking support from Christian school families who have determined, for conscience sake, to reject, public schools. That support is not going to happen.

By this thinking, "no" is the only correct vote for Proposition S for my wife and I.

Respectfully,

Gray Clark

Schell City