School mill levy vote, home-visiting grant are crucial to welfare of children
Letter to the Editor,
It is with a heavy heart and true astonishment that I am writing this letter. I truly do not understand some of the people and leaders of our community.
Don’t people understand that the current generation of leaders is not going to live forever? And when they are all dead and gone, who in this town and county will lead? Will this area of Montana just die?
At the rate that the leadership of our town and county is going, every child around here will quickly leave the area as soon as they possibly can. They will not want to raise their children in a place where the community does not support the improvement of children and families.
First, I want to address the matter of the mill levy for our local school system. This levy is meant to improve our school systems. I have read comments in the local papers such as “I don’t have kids that go there,” and “I’m not paying any more taxes.”
I ask the people who have this opinion: Have you been to our schools lately? Have you looked at the supplies the teaching staff is given? Have you met one of the many dedicated teachers (some of whom have no kids who go there) who spend their own money for supplies to provide the best teaching they can to our children?
Yes, I personally have a grandchild in this school system. I appreciate everything the teachers do and accomplish with the little that they have. However, with all of the funding cuts that have been made and are still being made I, frankly, don’t see how our school is going to continue to provide education to our children.
Even if you don’t have children, don’t you think that our future depends on our kids? What are the kids learning from our local and county leaders? I, personally, don’t want my grandchild to learn to be a greedy, self-centered person when she grows up. I want her to be the kind of person who helps people that are less fortunate than her.
Next, I would like to address local healthcare issues. We have county leaders who do not see any reason to have a County Health Department. How many children in Lincoln County are now lost and not getting vital preventative healthcare that all infants and children need to become healthy adults?
This is only a small part of the services that our County Health Department provided. And now, our county leaders have taken away another fabulous service that the county offered to Lincoln County children and families. The grant that the county received for the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Grant (Parents as Teachers program) was basically free money to the county.
The program targets children, but something that a lot of people don’t know is that the program starts targeting the children as soon as the mom gets pregnant. They teach new parents valuable lessons about being a good parent and how to teach their child once the baby is here. Regardless of what the county commissioners think, this is not a duplication of services in our county.
Along with children losing out on the valuable service, ask yourselves this: How many people in our county who are working with this program are going to lose their job? I hear all the time that Libby needs jobs, and I fully agree, so what is this all about?
Finally, I would like to ask every person in Lincoln County, if you are not registered to vote, please do so. And then use your power to get what our community needs to survive.
Vote for the mill levy and by all means vote for better community leadership who have the good of our community at the forefront of their agenda.
Please remember, the children are our future, and we need to keep them healthy and make them smart.
— Janeth Cox
Libby