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Ten years ago, the supplemental levy run by LPOSD was just under $9 million and the staffing component was about $2 million, which is 22 percent. This year it’s $17million and the staffing component is just over $14 million, about 82 percent. During that same 10-year period, LPOSD lost 387 students. So: fewer students but outsized levy? This is not something that makes sense to fiscally responsible people.

Retirees and others on fixed incomes are forced to consider whether they will be able to afford to live here. A friend who has lived in the same home for many years has seen her school tax double over the past 10 years; another has seen it triple.

More money does not equal better education. If that were the case, Detroit, L.A., Chicago, and New York City schools would be in world-class league. In Idaho, the best SAT scores are those of charter schools, who receive no levy funding. Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy has had the top SAT scores for three years running; in 2014, 8,700 students were on waiting lists for charter schools. Meanwhile, LPOSD has been losing enrollment.

We have been given a doomsday scenario by the school district if this levy fails. When asked if the levy would be run again in May if it does not pass on March 14 the answer was “absolutely.” Send the LPOSD back to the drawing board to give us a reasonable levy amount on the May ballot. Vote against the levy this time around.

VICTORIA ZEISCHEGG

Sandpoint