November 08, 2006

Sports > Education

That is the message declared by the majority of voters from my hometown of Mt. Enterprise. Allow me to elaborate a bit.

When I was in high school, I am fairly certain MEISD had less than 200 students in both high school and junior high. That number may be a bit off, but I'm fairly certain it was somewhere around 200. In the more than four years since I graduated, I doubt the school population has grown by much. With liberal speculation, I'm going to estimate that there may be close to 300 students now.

According to certain family members of mine, the City of Mt. Enterprise (pop. 525) approved a bond election on Tuesday. This bond will allow for the construction of a $3,000,000 stadium for the school.

$3,000,000. Three. Million. Dollars.

From what I've been told, this money will be raised by increasing land taxes by more than 15%. From my observations, most of the land owners are elderly. Not only do they no longer have children in school but most of them don't even have grandchildren still in school. These are the people who will pay for this.

Despite what those in favor of this monstrosity say, a sports stadium will not help "our children's future." Very few students from MEISD receive sports scholarships which are worth anything more than a community college education. Better equipment and facilities won't change that.

Can anyone explain to me the reasoning behind building a sports stadium that is probably worth more than all the other school facilities combined?

Posted by Randy at November 8, 2006 05:38 PM | TrackBack