In the pages of this newspaper, I read with dismay of school budgets rejected and of schools closed — budget after budget, school after school. What is this madness, that sweeps our state with the scythe of destruction?

Our schools are:

• Support systems and safety nets for parents, families and future heads of families.
• Support systems for volunteers and their contributions to our communities.
• Among the last places where our townsfolk can gather for a sense of community.
• Pipelines for creating future employers and upwardly-mobile workers, thereby strengthening and expanding our local economies and our Maine tax base.
• Incubators and training grounds for future citizens — future participants in, and future stewards and guardians of — whatever is left of our American representative democracy.

Our schools are an investment in our people infrastructure. Our children — and the adults who support them — are 100% of our future.

If we think education is expensive, try ignorance.

If we truly value our state, our country and our civilization, then it’s time for us to prove, as Mainers and Americans, that we are who we say we are.

For our children, for our communities, for our future, let’s roll up our sleeves and support our schools.

Steve Turner
Mechanic Falls