The investement of the public in eras past

Continuing on just a bit, on bond related topics, I can't help but note that the high school I went to, which is now seeing large scale renovation, was built in 1923. The pool was built in 1926, I think.  The football stadium, which was subject to a proposal to be abandoned at one time, but which a public movement saved, dates back to 23.

When I look around Casper at public buildings, I can find a few old ones that are really something.  NCHS, the Federal Courthouse, the old County Courthouse, and so on. Some were built with local money, some with Federal money, but at any rate, when they are examined, it is clear that they were built for the ages.

Some public facilities here are like  that too.  City swimming pools, tennis courts, parks, etc., were all built with local money.

I note this, as I really wonder about the current bond opposition.  I understand that people do not want additional property taxes, but these projects are not unwise.  Prior generates here were very obviously willing to invest in something that was calculated to last well after they were gone.  Indeed, looking at some of these buildings, such as NCHS, it's very obvious that they were consciously built with the knowledge that most of the beneficiaries of the bond issues that built them would be born after the generation that paid for them was dead.  Now people don't seem to think quite that way.  Perhaps we should.

I am also surprised by the ongoing "times are tough" talk here.  No, they are not.  If people are having tough times here now, they better be thinking hard about that, as for this state, these are really good economic times.  Indeed, historically, with the type of economy we have here, these are really good times.  If individuals who have long residence here are having tough times, what that means is that this economic model, which seems to be the one we prefer, isn't working. That should lead us to support a broader educational model, not a more narrow one.

Finally, it's distressing the way that education has become a political football for other philosophical and political theories.  There is a lot of rhetoric floating around about "local control", "Common Core" and the like.  At the heart of it, people who are dedicated in their opposition to government beyond a minimalist government are of the view that everything should be local in control.  I'm not intending to debate that in any fashion, and a person can spend a lot of time exploring that, but what I'd note here is that none of this has anything to do with the bond.  Ironically, the bond actually restores local control.   Prior to 1970, all school funding in Wyoming was through bonds.  100%.  Now, what we have left is those items which the state does not fund, but which may still be necessary as a practical matter.  Ironically, therefore, those who oppose the bond on the basis that they support local control actually propose to surrender as much control as possible to the state, as they'd essentially have all funding be from the state.