Our Not-Quite School Bond

Perhaps I am somewhat biased. After all, I decided to run for the school board because I was concerned that Stony Rushing’s values did not give pride of place to education. Nevertheless, I find the current fiasco over the referendum being played out (or, rather, not played out) by the Union County Board of Commissioners a shocking embarrassment.

How is it that our elected representatives can be so short sighted as to play politics with the future of the children of Union County? More than most, our schoolchildren need our elected officials to act as public servants. Because they are too young to vote, they have no choice but to trust the adults to act like adults and put the public’s business before their own.

Instead, our County Commissioners – and Stony Rushing in particular – have intentionally missed meetings in order to block the bond from moving forward. This has put the future of our schools at risk and, assuming that this cannot be resolved quickly, has increased the costs Union County will have to pay to have the ballots ready in November.

As far as I can tell, we, the citizens of Union County, have no immediate recourse to deal with this turn of events. We have no choice right now but to worry about whether we will face increased costs to build the new schools we so desperately need and waste money because we cannot tell printers what to print.

We will in November – if we remember what has happened now.

If we want responsible government, we need responsible elected officials. We must not vote for those who have authored this farce – even if we must write in the names of other candidates.