Mr. (Roy) Nichols and many others want us to believe, “This vote is strictly about the future of the children of Troup County and our future quality of life.” (“E-SPLOST about schools, not administrators,” May 12)

Really? It seems to me to be about buildings, infrastructure and technology. Exactly where does the children part come in to this plan?

There are many countries where the focus is on education and the classroom is a mud hut. I have seen them! The children are behaved and the teachers are more attentive to teaching than trying to control the group.

They are not so concerned with new buildings, any technology — they still use blackboards if they have them — and turn out students who are educated at least, if not better, than what our schools produce.

“This is not a referendum on the popularity of the superintendent or the school board members.”

Actually it kind of is about them. You see, when we have an elected board that is so unresponsive to not ever answer any concerns of local parents or teachers.

A superintendent who is appointed by this same board and of course adopts that same attitude. A system where we have a shortage of teachers but a principal for every grade.

Board members who tell parents that they would like to help on issues but, and I quote here, “my hands are tied” — Debbie Burdette. A chairman who tells parents that if they don’t like the way he runs a meeting to, and I quote again, “See Mr. (Taylor)” the TCSS attorney — Ted Alford.

A system that is more concerned with teaching to the test so much so that the children are dissuaded from going outside that box and told to study “for the test.” A system that the citizens can’t trust to educate our children or spend monies wisely. Why should we be responsive to their wants?

So a yes vote for the E-SPLOST is not a vote for the children and teachers of our county. It is a vote for buildings and technology, a vote to pad the school budget so that they can use monies in other places that we as citizens may never know about, to continue to build this new school empire that the citizens do not want or need.

To have our teachers constantly leave for other systems, which leaves our schools in a constant state of flux. You want to know the truth from the teacher’s side? Go read the letters to the editor from Ms. (Becky) Grubbs (“Teachers, parents feeling frustration with school system,” April 28), whom I don’t know, but now have a great deal of respect for. It should be about the children!

If the school system turned out these “promising graduates who are sought after by industry” there would be no issues with this, yet we don’t. After 20 years of promising that if we vote yes for E-SPLOST it will do just that, where are they?

Randy Dye

LaGrange

Editor’s note: Clarifications added in parenthesis.