School bond: No school support seen

It’s difficult to read an anti-school bond letter without shaking my head in disbelief. I can’t decide if they’re trying to convince me, or more likely, convince themselves that they support schools.

Citizens of Oak Harbor are certainly entitled to their opinion and their vote regarding a school bond. It’s unfortunate, though, that many of these anti-school bond voters cannot at least be honest with themselves. They simultaneously proclaim their support of schools and their disdain for a high school remodel. Their definition of “support” is fundamentally hollow.

They agree that the young people of Oak Harbor should be educated; they just don’t care to pay for it. Just because a school was “good enough” for you in the 1970s, doesn’t make it “good enough” for kids in 2003.

How many of you that voted against the school bond have stepped foot in the high school in the past 5 years? I encourage you to stop by sometime and have a look in the halls when the bell rings. You may wonder if you’re witnessing students making their way to their next class or a human sausage press.

Teachers have it easy, right? Try performing a chemistry experiment with 35 students in a classroom where, depending on the week, a quarter of the gas jets, faucets, and/or electrical outlets are not functioning.

Finally, please sit down with a student at Oak Harbor High School and explain your definition of “support.” Maybe the time has come to just be honest with yourself. You do not support schools. You wish them nothing but the best but you aren’t going to pay for it. You own property on Whidbey Island; you don’t have any kids in Oak Harbor Schools so why should you have to foot the bill, right?

Turn your head the other way. When your over-taxed property is vandalized or robbed by a young person blame schools. Make them do something about these young people that have no respect or regard for other people’s property. Could it be that quality of schools may having something do with quality of life? Of course not.

Brandt Holden

Oak Harbor

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