Editor:

If the high school referendum in South Portland meets its maker on Nov.
6, no autopsy will be necessary. It will have perished from
bureaucratic excess, insufficient transparency, and fatal
miscommunication with the electorate from whose pockets the $85 million
tab was to have come.

Had energy efficiency, air circulation, soil drainage, outdated
electrical equipment or asbestos issues ever seriously plagued its
occupants, perhaps a case could be made. But this $85 million
sub-contractor’s dream, based on the false premise that such an
expenditure would somehow elevate a student’s passion for learning, has
no basis in fact. We should be so fortunate. The reality is, between 40
and 50 percent of high school graduates nationwide annually flunk
college entrance exams in English and mathematics – 36 percent of the
freshmen can barely read. We are not immune from this tragedy.

But the notion of throwing money at a building in hopes it might
somehow elevate the attitude of lackadaisical parents, or jump start
their lethargic and uninspired offspring to somehow reinvent themselves
as serious and enthusiastic parents and students, is not only an
illogical stretch, but punishes our overburdened and tax-wary citizens
for the failure of our educational institutions to remedy their own
shortcomings.

Fix what needs fixing. But don’t tell us that ambiance enhances the
motivation to learn. That comes from within. Stimulate our young to
reach within themselves and many of the golden doors of life will open
for them. Fail and their futures could be bleak.

Robert M. Lord

South Portland