Editor,
Several people have mentioned to me the Noblesville Schools referendum on this upcoming ballot.
Economic development is key to an increasing standard of living. The American dream has been that our children, and their children, will be better off than we are, just as we are better off than our parents and grandparents.
One of the secrets to the success of the United States has been universal education. Emblazoned in Indiana’s Constitution is our commitment to free public education. “Free to whom?” you may well ask. Well, I say to you “TINSTAAFL.” There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
My father fled from Sparta, Mich., just before a new school was to be built and re-settled in northern Michigan, where population was in decline, and no new school needed to be built. After all, he didn’t need a new school, or teachers. He graduated in 1940, and his last kid did so in 1972. He did not want to pay anymore.
But in the 1930s, his parents had paid for his education, and while I and my siblings were in school, he campaigned for new schools, teacher pay and all the rest.
I determined I was not going to be my father, at least in this particular way (it’s amazing how else I’ve become my father!).
Personally, I will support schools as long as I am alive. Someone paid for my education, and I will pay that debt forward.
Jim Gorby, Noblesville
