Today is the day. Voters in Pike County and Troy are asked to go to the polls to vote for a 29-year renewal of a school tax.

And, again, we urge you to go vote in support of this tax renewal.

The key word in that sentence is one: renewal.

This is not a new tax levy; this is simply a vote to continue funding at the millage level the schools have had for nearly 70 years now. And it’s crucial that we continue funding the schools at this level.

Voting for this renewal will not increase your property taxes; it will not levy

new taxes on you; and it will not be the panacea to all the schools’ problems.

But it is an important step.

Proper and consistent educational funding is a necessary first step to providing a strong, viable and excellent public school system. Given Alabama’s struggles with proration and education funding on a state level, it’s critical that we rise above that in Pike County and prove that we are willing to provide the consistent funding.

Once the funding is in place, for at least another 29 years, we can shift our focus from budgets to books ­ and that means talking about curriculum; accountability; school success; and student success.

Those are the real issues both educators and taxpayers want to address, and we believe they must be addressed to provide the type of public schools systems we all want for our children and our county.

To have that, we must stay focused on those common issues. And, in the short term, we need to put to rest the questions and doubts over community funding.

We need to renew the school tax millage; please vote today.  

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