No headline

Mark Twain once said, “if elections mattered, they wouldn’t let us have them.”

I read many levy letters in the paper, some vilifying certain people, others rhapsodizing about how schools and teachers are so special ... others saying it’s only a few dollars more, we must dig in and do it ... it occurred to me there’s another group of citizens we haven’t heard from: folks living on a fixed income, retired working men, and veterans.

We don’t have a wad of cash under our mattresses. We are truck drivers, welders, mechanics, painters, carpenters, and so on. We didn’t get college degrees; we worked with our hands using skills learned on the job. I’m one such, live on Social Security and just received a COLA increase of $3 per month.

So it rankles me when we have to live within our means so the superintendent can keep making $174,000 a year, bonus and all.

Can’t the LPOSD live within its means? Perhaps have six or seven football coaches instead of fifteen?

I’m not against schools. We need ‘em.

I have no children, but I’m compelled to pay for the education of other people’s children, and every year that goes up. Parents who homeschool or send their kids to alternative schools pay twice — once for public school and once for the school the kids attend. When a company charges you for a service you don’t receive, it’s called fraud. What shall we call this levy?

Let’s make this election matter ... please vote.

CHRIS ALLEN

Sandpoint