Weighing in

A community drive to increase property taxes to pay for youth programs, including an emphasis on reducing the number of high school dropouts, drew spirited debate among readers. Find complete coverage and more comments at www.spokesman.com.

greyhound2: The kids need to understand that the property owners do not owe the kids an education. They only owe the kids an opportunity to get themselves an education. Let’s put the shoe on the right foot.

Ninch: I see no mention of a serious needs assessment to justify which programs should be funded but rather a bunch of stuff thrown at the wall and hoping it sticks.

dick adams: Throw more money at the problem with no accountability makes absolutely no sense. Seems to me, a good start might be to weed out some of the do-nothing administrators at the district offices downtown where many of the stupid decisions in the past were made to keep the children in school.

Leekinny: This is one of those pay me now or pay me more later kind of things. They’re kids, many of whom face real or seemingly insurmountable problems, who are part of our community family, that need our help. I’m not going to vote to turn my back on them.

ChefGus: Our property values are directly correlated with the success of our school system. Mead School District is a fairly fine example of this. If the dropout rate is not improved the whole Spokane Basin will suffer, and anyone who owns property or pays rent is a beneficiary of improved schools.

DJH: Educators/Unions at their best. … Let’s raise property taxes and give you more funding where there is no accountability. The school district already receives 34.5 percent of your property taxes, but amazingly you still need additional funding.

Lewis: I am not giving any more money to these open-ended projects where accountability and the cleaning up of wasted resources is not tried first. Pouring more, more money on the problem is not going to solve anything. My property taxes are too high now for what services I get.

Albert: If a person like myself could make it to a PhD with honors, then virtually anyone – and I mean anyone – can make it. All that is required is “Focus and Discipline.” More money that will be squandered in meaningless, nonproductive programs will not address the dropout issues. History will clearly document that virtually every generation has addressed this issue. Perhaps the current “Federal” requirements of instructor/administrator results may in the long run prove to be effective? Only time will tell.