It is interesting to note Dr. Pierce’s frustration with “the minority of no voters” who failed to vote for the Lake Washington School District bond.

If the rest of the no voters are in the same boat as myself, it might just be that they too are are getting up in age, living on a fixed income, watching their real estate taxes go up anywhere from 8-10 percent a year, have paid for upwards of 20 years of school taxes for their own children, and some perhaps, even paying taxes for public schools as well as tuition for parochial schools.

The schools I went to as a kid, both grammar and high school, were more than 50 years old. There was no hue and cry that we needed new facilities and strangely we seemed to manage just fine without a lot of costly whistles and bells. Shockingly, we all came away with a decent education.

I realize that teachers need to be fairly compensated for the fine work they do and that teaching aids (computers etc.) need to be provided, and they should be, but one has to ask, “where does it all stop?”

Dr. Pierce claims “we are dealing with real overcrowding.” I think this is something our city fathers should have thought about when they allowed zoning changes that allowed builders to tear down single family homes and cram two, three or more homes onto the property.

In affect, they have created this overcrowding mess that now strains our cities resources, traffic and schools, and they expect the taxpayers to bail them out.

Dr. Pierce’s fix for all this? Change the 60 percent rule to 50 percent and make an end run around the those who say, “enough.” We can’t afford real estate tax bills that double every ten to twelve years; not on a fixed income. Unlike local government, we can’t give ourselves a raise whenever we feel the need. This tax and spend mentality has to stop or our children will face an even greater problem than the very latest of everything; it will be a crushing tax burden.

Dennis Schor, Kirkland