I know the increase of taxes is a thorny issue. I am on a fixed budget, and so it is for me, too. However, I believe in public education and, as a citizen of Portland, I urge our citizens to support a raise in our taxes rather than a cut in our services.

Maine has excellent schools and teachers, and the plan to change things makes me very sad. My five grandchildren have gone through the Portland Public Schoolswith excellent results. We all benefit from an educated citizenry.

We need to prepare our children to govern this great country with as much information as possible. They need to learn to think and reason in weighing the difficult issues that face us each day. Larger classes and larger schools defeat this plan from the beginning.

These children are our future. We owe them the best education we can give, and we should never move backward in this desire.

Carol V. Jenkins

Portland