Matthee has ideas to help our schools

We all seem to agree that Idaho schools need help. The $1.5 billion facilities bill is a great start, but it won’t be enough. Think about the numbers. Boise Independent School District will get around $40 million. Lake Pend Oreille School District will get around $14 million. West Bonner County will get a bit less than $4 million, falling well short of what they need. They’re working hard right now to get yet another vital levy passed in West Bonner County, once again putting more burden on a small rural community to make up a shortfall in the state budget.

We need representatives like Karen Mathee, who supports real change in how our schools are funded. She supports proposals like HB 755, which would create a state facilities fund for schools and a system that gives funding to districts that need it the most, rather than continuing to suffocate smaller districts with attendance-based funding. She believes that local property owners already pay for schools with their taxes, and shouldn’t have to pay twice with constant, inefficient, emergency levies. She agrees with the Idaho Supreme Court that the state has a responsibility to adequately fund our schools, not waste our money and ignore rural districts. She wants to fix our crumbling facilities, and create the learning environments that our kids will need to learn and thrive.

That sounds great to me. Vote Karen Mathee this November for House 1B, and she’ll work hard to bring us the schools we need for the future we want.

HAL GATES

Sandpoint