Soon, like Vermont, Michigan, Connecticut, Oregon and Delaware, we will spend more for our correctional system than for our children’s education (“The Clash of Generations,” Kotlikof and Burns, 2012 MIT press).

Our elected school board members and selectmen have different messages. The voting generation wants a discounted education for our children, the future generations. Waste becomes a buzzword for opposing any school budget. A handicapped school district produces handicapped teachers and exodus of good teachers, administrators and parents looking for a house in a good school district.

The tax base goes down because property values go down. The older generation would not be able to cash in the equity in the house they live in.

The governor’s perception of Maine students being looked down will become (God forbid) a self-fulfilling prophesy. Money is not everything.

People who say, “You cannot improve education by throwing money at it” without looking at the budget and without bothering to vote, prove that they are not interested in compromises; for them money is everything.

Without a proper high school education, the earning incomes of our children would be down and they would not be able to participate in an enlightened fashion in our democracy. The people unable to vote for anything, but who would vote against everything, are inflicting wounds that would produce our own decline. (The world economic forum ranked United States 48 in the quality of mathematics and science education in 2007.)

RSU 18 troubles are our troubles. I urge people to go out and vote at the next budget and respectfully urge elected leaders and civic leaders to behave constructively and not divide and rule, or kill a golden goose (education) that lays golden eggs and produces enlightened leaders such as Margaret Chase Smith, Edmund Muskie and George Mitchell.

Padiath A. Aslam

Belgrade