To the Journal editor:

The overwhelming support of the sinking fund proposition for the improvement of our schools was a wonderful victory for our education system.

The district will now be able to give its physical capital the attention and funding it needs. Now, it seems to me, the school board members and the administraiton should turn its attention to the most important component of our children’s education: its teachers.

A fine education is not, after all, dependent on bricks and mortar. It is dependent on the quality and commitment of those who instruct our young people.

We cannot turn out the leaders of tomorrow unless we treat those who mold their lives with the respect and compensation they deserve.

If we wish to retain and attract the best and the brightest to the teaching profession, we must treat our teachers as the professionals they are. We need to provide adequate funding to the district’s human capital.

We have already lost some of our finest teachers who have become disillusioned with the system and the adversarial atmosphere they sense.

Hopefully, the board and the school administration will realize that they must now take note of their most important resource and negotiate in good faith, keeping in mind the future of our students and their educational needs.

Holly S. Greer

Marquette