Our children, our community, and our economy will benefit from updating our school facilities. Everyone in Aiken County shares the vision of our schools providing a quality education that prepares our children to become good citizens, to become self-reliant and to be prepared for employment in the 21st century economy. This is what our parents’ generation provided us, and we understand that it is right for us to do the same for the generations that follow us. In November, we will be given the opportunity to take an important step in meeting that obligation by voting for the 1 percent sales tax proposal to fund critically needed improvements to our school facilities. Many of our facilities are old and functionally obsolete.

There are those who comment that buildings do not educate students. While that is undeniably true, it is also true that school facilities are an important element in the delivery of a quality education. We know that buildings have long, useful lives. However, eventually every building must be replaced even while we take care to maintain and upgrade it along the way.

You can read the full story by clicking the link below.

http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20140902/AIK02/140909998/1018/AIK02/column-one-percent-tax-increase-benefits-local-community