“Why don’t they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.”

Will Rogers, American humorist

Want a house real cheap? I always dreamed of owning my own home (jointly with my wife, of course) and invest in something for the supposed golden years. I have finally realized that I have invested not only in my own future but others’ as well, even though I am not related to them. Or wish to be, for that matter. Sorry for the incomplete sentence but that’s about the best my mind is operating at this week. That’s probably the reason I miss taking my prescription vitamins, but that’s a story you won’t hear about.

I think that the time has come to change our system of taxation and place it on everyone’s back equally. After all, why should homeowners suffer under such high taxes in order to pay for a large hunk of municipal and school taxes? The same applies for those who own vehicles that are heavily taxed every year.

Look at what’s happening in Windham lately. The voters turned down a bond for a new Public Works facility. Now the RSU-14 Board of Directors has started the process of building a new middle school in Windham that could cost as much as $42.5 million dollars, just for Windham property taxpayers. The municipal budget passed this year’s town meeting without any regard to state revenue sharing, which if I read right is somewhere over $600,000. If that is true, will that be used for property relief or stashed away in someone’s desk in town hall? If that’s not bad enough for you, when will the State of Maine legislators and governor finally adhere to the laws of the State of Maine and finally fund 55 percent of local education? Remember LD-1 of the past that promised that yet it never happened? Unfortunately, Maine’s fake law on term limits allows any member of the Legislature to return to office and make even more false promises.

So I wonder if a school that cost $42.5 million will really make such a huge difference in improving the test scores of the children in Windham and Raymond. You see, the problem I have with that promise by elected officials is that it never comes true. It’s not that schools in America are on top of some kind of list, because they are. Unfortunately for all of us, America has the highest cost per student when it comes to educating them, but when it comes to ranking, American students fall far short. I won’t bore you with facts that prove it, but when one looks at our nation’s test scores and the percentage of students that fail to meet standards, why aren’t parents as well as taxpayers doing something to improve the education of our youth?

Not being embarrassed to say what I feel, does a new building really improve education at all if we do nothing but pour more and more money into education without any tangible results? Recently, an acquaintance of mine stated she would rather put the $42.5 million into acquiring better teachers than a new building, and she knows a whole bunch about education. That might be true as well for a new Public Works facility in Windham, and even the town manager mentioned looking at a reduced cost by cutting something out of the last proposal that failed. That’s a start at least that even I can agree with, so let’s see what happens. Windham has some elected dreamers on both the school and municipal sides of government but unfortunately they are only mentioning one source to get that money. If you don’t care to guess, it’s once again taxpayers.

But I have to end this column on a sadder note. All of what I mentioned might not apply if you are hospitalized, and that’s something that I never realized. The third leading cause of death in America is now medical errors. That’s really scary.

Lane Hiltunen of Windham wonders why the world has gone wacky, real wacky.