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Please vote in favor of the new school levy on March 14, 2017. This two-year levy replaces the old, expiring levy. It is a bare-bones, minimal increase of approximately 2 percent on just the Lake Pend Oreille School District portion of your property tax. For a home assessed at $250,000 with the homeowner’s exemption, it is only a $6 increase in year one (2017-18) plus an additional $6 increase in year two (2018-19).

Even with a new levy, the school district will have to cut in the range of $600,000 for next year. Without the new levy, there will have to be additional cuts of about 165 full-time positions, elimination of academic and athletic extracurricular activities, schools will have to be consolidated, and class sizes will become overcrowded.

It is a shame that the state of Idaho does not see fit to properly fund our public school systems, so that we wouldn’t need these local levies.

I know there are probably some tea party extremists, redoubters, and others who would like nothing more than to see our public schools crumble. We must not let this happen.

So get out on March 14 and vote in favor of giving all our children and grandchildren a better future — and — a better life through better education.

PHILIP A. DEUTCHMAN

Sandpoint