Funding for education is vital

To the editor:

Regarding the Dec. 3 article 'Panel tackles inequities in school funding”:

A legitimate conversation centers around the proportionate funding relationship among local, state and federal sources. Since the responsibility of educating our youth was reserved constitutionally to the states, it is logical that given the inequities of local taxing sources, the responsibility rests primarily at the state level.

Unfortunately, this obligation has become a local burden. The state Legislature has, however, continuously imposed restrictions on local taxing authority. School districts now find themselves between the proverbial ‘rock and a hard spot'. Continuing to cut costs in essential services may result in measurably more disproportionate damages.

As a grandparent and former superintendent of schools in both Iowa and Illinois, I argue that education may be our most important essential service.

Each year, school districts are unable to plan for staffing and programmatic upgrades while breathlessly awaiting the whims of an ideologically neutered Legislature.

I doubt that this circumstance was envisioned when the current funding mechanisms were fashioned.

Leonard Roberts

Oxford