Though we are new residents of Jefferson County and don’t have school age children, we strongly support the levy, and here’s why. The entire community can only thrive when each generation of kids grows up receiving a strong education that prepares them to be productive, thoughtful and informed citizens. Though we have heard others say “Well, I don’t have kids in the public school system, so why should I want to pay more in taxes to support the schools?” we see this as a very narrow and short sided view. All of us benefit from programs that others pay to support- Clear examples include Social Security and Medicare, wherein younger workers “pay it forward” into a system that benefits the older generation. The levy works in reverse, wherein older citizens provide needed support for the education of younger citizens-to-be.

ALL of us ought to recognize our stake in seeing that our community’s kids have an opportunity to experience high quality education. It’s an unfortunate, but legislatively mandated misnomer to call it an “excess” levy- there’s nothing “excess” about it, and in no way is the levy in place to support frivolous or nonessential “extras.”

We’ve seen the same levy struggle occur in counties across West Virginia, and have noted with dismay that reauthorization is clearly not automatic. Indeed, levies have sometimes gone down to defeat because too many supporters didn’t vote- presumably they were assuming that plenty of “other” supporters would come out and thus their affirmative vote wasn’t really important. Please don’t kid yourself- in a special election like this, every ballot truly matters.

The levy deserves our support- please take the time to cast your vote.

Sincerely,

Marty Amerikaner and Linda Spatig

Shepherdstown