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I am voting “no” on the plant facilities levy. Instead, I want Bonner County residents and Lake Pend Oreille School District to support education rather than schools.

Education is the process by which we transmit the skills and value of culture. It is what we deem important to impart to our youth. It is embodied in the curricula. It is implicit in the teachers and staff we hire and develop. It is present in how we balance competition and cooperation. It can be seen in how we manage standards and discretion. It guides how we emphasize the holistic benefits of liberal education while allowing students to indulge in focused learning. In the end, it is the educational process that will largely determine whether we appropriately tool our children for success in the 21st century, a future that will be defined by age-old critical thinking and the ability to master the business of programming and science.

In contrast, schools are about the institution of schooling. Schools are buildings, class sizes, and pay scales. Schools are pupil expenditures, compliance, and grants. Schools are teacher unions and administration. Schools are dress and behavioral codes, parking lots, and bell schedules. Schools are campus safety, fundraisers, and attendance.

Schools must be designed to support education, not the other way around! With the plant facilities levy, we are doing precisely the opposite. Instead of a funding proposal to upgrade education, taxpayers are being asked to finance the institution of schooling.

Please. Invest in education not schools. Vote no on Aug. 30.

PETER KRIZ

Sandpoint