I ask for your vote for re-election to the Auburn School Board on May 20. While you're there, I ask that you also vote “yes” on next year's budget.

People often ask, “Why do you do it? It's such a thankless job.” A partial answer: Because public education is essential to the future of our American democracy. Can anyone deny that an educated public is more necessary than ever in today's America?

“But it sure ain't free,” some might say. It is free for the “users” - the children and their parents. But it is not free for the rest of us, and was never intended to be. Both the cost of public education (only about 5 percent is under local control) and the methods of funding it (state aid and property taxes) are in need of major revisions. Yet this is by far the highest state aid and the lowest tax increase that I have seen.

On June 26, we will have the opportunity to vote again, this time at Seward Elementary School. That vote will be on a major building-improvement project affecting every school in the district. I can assure you from my own close observations that the project is carefully planned, and structured to benefit the schools and the community, as well.

As a veteran of the Vietnam War during the time of the Tet Offensive, and as a retiree and taxpayer actively engaged in a variety of activities on behalf of our community, I do not take kindly to the allegation that I am “out of touch with the common taxpayer.” But I am nevertheless proud to be an American, and especially proud to be a citizen of Auburn, a truly all-American town.

David Lansford

Auburn