“America ranks the lowest in education but the highest in drug use. It’s nice to be No. 1 but we can fix that. All we need to do is start the war on education. If it’s anywhere near as successful as our war on drugs, in no time we’ll all be hooked on phonics.”

Leighann Lord

Who would have ever thought that the prospect of paying for a new middle school in Windham might just be a death sentence for the relationship that Windham and Raymond residents have that led to Regional School Unit 14? To be honest, I hope to God that Raymond does withdraw from RSU 14 because the honchos in Augusta have already stated there are no state funds to assist in building a new middle school in Windham. Hopefully many residents in Raymond feel the same as I do that there is not enough money in their wallets. Ultimately the end result shows that once again voters were duped by their local and state officials who promised combining schools and school districts would save the taxpayers money. Just another lie.

On a side note, the same happened with L.D. 1, which was another piece of legislation passed by the legislators in Augusta that was promised as tax relief by having 55 percent of the cost of local education paid for by the state. In case you can’t guess, just another lie. My only hope here is that voters finally wake up and smell the roses because we have some previous legislators from Windham that were termed out running once again, and they made some of the false promises I mentioned. It’s high time for a serious change in the state of Maine Legislature.

So, back to Raymond, where I hope that most residents don’t want to become the cash cow for RSU 14. It has become blatantly clear that Windham residents don’t want to send their children to a school in Raymond that would alleviate overcrowding of the middle school in Windham. However, it is also obvious that those Windham parents have no problem in forcing Raymond children to be bused to Windham. Talk about some having a double set of standards for their children and children of others! I think about the miles I was bused when schools were consolidated in my hometown and I don’t remember any negative reaction at all. Well, I guess it’s just another reason why Raymond residents should wonder why their children are playing second fiddle to the children residing in Windham.

At the same time, what amazes me is how Europeans could build castles and other buildings that have lasted more than 1,000 years and more many lasting hundreds of years while Windham spends tens of millions of dollars on schools that can barely last decades, especially ones build with brick and mortar. I look at the number of old farmhouses all across Maine that have remained pretty much in their original condition and find a common denominator that is the difference between the two and it’s no different than the way my wife and I maintain our vehicles. I thank God that I worked for New England Telephone when I graduated from high school and then had my military career. It’s called preventive maintenance, and it works just as well for our house in Windham. Unfortunately Windham has a history of poor building maintenance as well as planning for the future.

I believe that it’s high time to finance education on something other than property taxes. Today there is no shame in robbing Peter to pay Paul, and you can bet that Paul loves it. The time has come to remove our oppressive taxes on property owners in order to finance abusive spending in municipal and school budgets. Perhaps the best method to publicly fund any entity is to ensure user fees cover the costs of operation. It doesn’t matter whether it’s schools, roads or trains. Socialism is expensive. Look at Sweden where the average family now pays $20,000 in taxes a year to pay for health care.

Lane Hiltunen of Windham believes elected officials should pay for everything they want us to have.