Editor,
This is in response to Trey Smith's letter to the editor on Feb. 7. Mr. Smith I understand your criticism of the APS school board, however, your criticism of the voters who voted down the bond issues seems naãve, at best.
As students at a university, we are often isolated from the problems that effect the larger society, problems such as property taxes.
For instance, last year Albuquerque property taxes increased by nearly 85 percent. I really wanted to vote for those school improvements, not just because I was a graduate of the Albuquerque Public Schools and not just because many generations of my family have been graduates and not just because generations of my family have been teachers in the APS system, but because the schools are in dire need of improvement.
I have watched as every single school that I attended has added barrack after barrack, instead of building after building. I think we can all agree that these temporary barracks need to go and permanent buildings need to be built. I also think we can all agree that our classrooms need computers so that our students can become technologically savvy and compete with the rest of society in future job markets.
What I think we can disagree on is how we go about doing this. Property taxes in Albuquerque are already too high. There needs to be another way for our schools to improve themselves. I suggest that instead of writing into the Lobo and criticizing voters that could not afford to vote "yes," you write to someone like Bill Gates and ask him for a grant to put a computer in every classroom. Make sure to say we won't buy a Macintosh, instead we'll buy IBM compatible computers with the new Windows version and you may actually get the money.
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Tony Long
Sociology Department
