Schools would be better off without state interference

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A response to Doug Wiersema's guest column on Oct. 28 titled "This is not a good time to raise taxes." Doug, I read the position paper you sent to the Gazette and am glad you mentioned the circumstances that our state government would see and take advantage of. If this little scheme was to generate enough support in the state, I am certain we would be given other opportunities to contribute locally to our schools, while they would provide no relief by lowering our taxes. Indeed, the demand for money in Springfield is so great that I'm tempted to think that this is another scheme like the one passed so many years ago by the state Legislature to fund the schools by using the profits from the lottery. They lied to us indirectly by leading us to believe all that money would be used to solve our school problems. What they did not tell us is that there is a school funding formula that determines how much of that money would go to each district. When that was accomplished, the rest of the money would go into the general fund to be used for whatever the governor and the legislators want. I'm curious - who thought up this current scheme, and who introduced it? If we were given the right to fund and drop all state taxes for education, remove the state from overseeing our schools, I fully think we could do a much better job than we see now.