Farmer voting 'yes'

By this fall we will have 77 portables ranging in cost from $225,000-$330,000 each. Adding portables is not a scare tactic, it is the only option to provide a classroom for every child in our district when school starts this fall. We are struggling to make a high school designed for 1,600 work by spreading students (Running Start, Skillsource and an extended 11-period day).

Few of us can imagine two high schools, or competing in a 2a league. Change is difficult, but this can be a huge success story for our community. We are not in the business of cramming as many as possible through a huge high school or preparing athletes for D1 college scholarships. Two smaller schools provide twice as many opportunities for the youth of our community. We are in the business of educating our youth, and providing as many as possible with the best opportunities while in school to prepare them for life. This done properly will pay huge dividends in our community.

Is it expensive? Of course. As a farmer and landowner I will pay less than some and more than others if this bond passes. I will do so humbly and happily because we have been blessed to live in this great community and live the life we do. Thankfully, the hard-working taxpayers of yesteryear felt the same way when they built the facilities we have now – and now it is our turn. We are not voting on the merits of fair taxation. To those whom much has been given, much will be required. We pay federal taxes, we pay city and county taxes, we contribute to philanthropies and we contribute to our church and its building projects, which all added up is much more than the resulting taxes from this bond will cost us.

There are personal reasons and uneducated reasons to vote ‘no’. But we must now come together as a community and look to the bigger picture. Vote “yes.”

Patrick Stevens

Moses Lake