Supporters of the SPLOST

pointed out in this newspaper several weeks ago that they

had "3,500" yes votes lined up just from school

employees and their families. They also counted on

another "600" votes from area Realtors. If this

is true, and they had these 4,100 yes votes before the

election was even held, the election was truly an

old-fashioned fanny whipping.

Now that their dream of a

$90 million windfall is gone, perhaps our school board

can focus on the real issues. Maybe now they will realize

that their top priorities shouldn't be whether or not

school children wear belts with the pants, nor whether

they can afford to build a new visitor locker room, and

put all of their efforts into improving the level of

education provided by our school system.

SPLOST was not about

improving our children's educational opportunities, it

was about spending millions upon millions of dollars on

pet projects. The developers have always been able to

tout our schools to help keep our county growing at a

breakneck pace. With the defeat of SPLOST maybe they need

to do a little truth in advertising and tell those new

residents they try to attract that those new residents,

children may be educated in trailers.

I am all for making our

schools the best in the state (of course in Georgia that

may not be saying much), and would support a SPLOST where

the money would be used for that purpose only. Let's hope

the school board starts doing their homework and starts

doing the job they were elected to do, to see that our

county's children have the best chance possible for a

quality education. If they can't do that without the

SPLOST then they need to tender their resignations now.

Steve Fodor

Peachtree City

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