Many will rejoice at this,

not least those who feed at the public trough through the fees, contracts

and other compensation payable by the school system. May they fully earn

them! We should be spared for a while the jeremiads of all those who preferred

doom and gloom scenarios to bringing a straight-forward bond issue before

the people.

If there's anybody mean-spirited

around here, it's our school board, and I'd like to explain why.

Suppose you have a Mom and

Dad who, realizing theirs is a growing family, begin to look at their

options for better housing. They sit around the kitchen table, one evening,

and start a conversation. Being practical, they ask themselves, what can

we afford for housing? Looking at their finances, they conclude they could

comfortably spare $1,200 a month for a mortgage. We'll ignore taxes and

insurance for the moment.

Mom works for some company

that offers to lend 5 percent mortgages to its employees. I use this example

only because school systems can borrow 5 percent money on account of their

tax exemption, and this will keep the example simpler.

Looking up a mortgage table,

Mom and Dad find that, for their $1,200 a month, they could finance a

house worth $224,000 with a 30-year mortgage, or a house worth $113,000

with a 10-year mortgage. Same payment. The only features that are different

are the value of the house and length of the payments.

Not liking their children very

much, Mom and Dad decide on the $113,000 house. They say, it'll be cramped

a bit, there won't be a playroom or a swimming pool for the kids, they

won't have separate rooms, which could make studying at home easier, and

the neighborhood might not be all that great, but just think that after

10 years we'll be debt-free, and the kids will leave home anyway.

Most people would probably

consider these parents moronic. Not only will their quality of family

life be much less than it could be for the 10 years coming up, but the

$113,000 house will likely forever be worth half of what the other house

would be. There is no question they could afford to keep paying the $1200

a month after 10 years. In fact, they might find it a lot easier then

than now. But they have this mental block, or obsession, about being debt-free,

and they are punishing their kids for it.

Fortunately, most parents are

a lot smarter. Unless they serve on our school board.

Do you realize that, for the

level of school bond taxes we're about to pay, we could borrow an extra

$236 million or so? That would be good for an extra 15 schools beyond

the four we've just approved.

We don't have to borrow that

much, but we could if we wanted to, and we wouldn't notice the difference

until 10 years from now when school bond taxes, instead of going down

drastically, would stay just like they will have been in years 2001 to

2009. Meanwhile, we'd enjoy wonderful school facilities for our Fayette

County children, the ones that are already here, instead of enduring that

miserly nonsense the school board has been dishing out.

The old school board cannot

leave town soon enough to suit me. Of course, they are, to a degree, the

victims of the bad advice they've received from the staff and others they

have chosen to counsel them. If the school board, new or old, thinks the

people are mean-spirited and tight, they've got it wrong.

We've been smart enough to

say No to SPLOST, generous enough to say Yes to 10-year bonds that call

for twice the taxes 30-year bonds would have required, and we're now ready

for reasonable, normal board members prepared to run a fine school system

with adequate facilities and sensible financing methods. I hope that,

comes January, we can say that's what we've got.

We need sensible long-term

financial planning from this school board, with the emphasis on sensible.

The old board's idea of long-term was to extend their proposed sales tax

beyond five years and keep it going forever, an idea they sought to conceal

but which fooled nobody.

Many educators and parents

in our county have complained, legitimately, about inadequate school facilities.

The real reason our students have done without has been the ignorance,

dumbness and gullibility of our school board in financial matters. This

bond election we've just had is, in a way, a wake-up call. Our kids can't

vote, and it's up to us, who can, to shake up the school board and pound

some financial sense into it.

I urge all parents who have

substantial financial expertise, those who are accountants or have business

administration degrees, to put pressure on the school board to develop

sensible long-term financing plans, realizing that until now this board

has flown off the seat of its pants with no advice or bad advice.

Being elected to anything does

not transform you into an all-knowing superman, although we have politicians

who act that way. These board members need help. As an old TV commercial

for a psychiatric institution used to say, if you don't seek help from

us, seek help somewhere. The school board needs help. Let's make sure

they get it.

My last word on this is to

thank the voters on behalf of the kids. I wish our school board and administrators

loved these kids more.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayetteville

[email protected]