To the editor:

The last time Mehlville School District passed an increased operating tax for its schools Reagan was in office.

We should be ashamed as Mehlville/Oakville residents. We want to compete with Lindbergh, Kirkwood, Rockwood, et cetera, but do not want to do what it takes financially. People, do your research. Look at what other administrators are being paid.

Look at the ratio of administrators to the overall numbers of schools/teachers.

Whatever your opinion is of Terry Noble, Mehlville is not cutting teachers, unlike the school districts I mentioned above and paying their administration and teachers very well. I am a single mother of two sons. I, too, struggle to make ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck like many of us.

For the owner of a home valued at $200,000 and assessed at $38,000, the in-crease would mean $334 more in taxes per year — less than a dollar a day given to the children that will become our future — not to mention that if our district/schools continue to decline so will the value of our homes. Are our children and our homes not our biggest investment?

This tax is so long overdue.

M. Lambert

south county