I appreciate councilmember Allen Skillicorn sharing his thoughts on education. However, I would counter the thought process based on rising interest rates as the reason to vote against education. Withholding funding to the school district will bring more destruction to our community than growth.

Imagine if the entire country stopped investing in education because of rising rates. What would happen to the country if business stopped investing in training and development due to rising interest rates? How does our environment change? Do we have the capacity to meet demands for medicine, health care, agriculture, engineering, transportation, energy, military and technology without education?

We are stronger together because of education. Education gives individuals opportunity to maintain the current community and then build the next community. We need the youth to build and maintain the coming years and decades.