By Will Lathrop, Silverton
I recently read the article in the March Our Town, “Fighting the Facility.” Obviously there are some problems at Eugene Field Elementary School that need to be addressed. I foresee a bond request in the near future. I’m not an educator but I have concerns general in nature. I think we need to address the real issue: getting a better education for our kids for the money. Many other countries are educating students at a far lower cost and doing a much better job in the process. We are spending way too much on less than average results. I was watching Condoleezza Rice on Oregon Public Broadcasting recently. She was discussing education in the U.S. She state that funds thrown at problem schools was yielding little results. We are wasting the money.
We have to do more than make money available to schools; more focus needs to be on educating rather than entertaining kids.
I live close to the new high school in Silverton. The huge glass pyramid topped entry at the school is fully lit all night. What a waste of a lot of expensive power. The pyramid itself was not necessary to teach kids better. Second, paver stones were installed in the walk ways. All have been removed and replaced with concrete. The bill for this was huge. I’m not picking on the high school only trying to point out some real examples. We are not getting our taxpayers’ monies worth. Private enterprise can’t get away with this kind of wastefulness.
Our country is based on hard work. We need to educate our kids to keep us strong and our economy robust. Better facilities are not the whole answer. We need to think about more bang for the buck.
