A Short Election Night Note: On Bonds & Community

As bond election results rolled in across The Texas Panhandle tonight, I was pleased to see almost universal success. Not only did voters in my own district approve a bond with massive potential to grow out student body and enrich our kids, many other communities did the same. 

I wanted to say a few words about these bonds in general, particularly in a time when public education is under attack, largely under the absurd misnomers of "school choice" and "indoctrination." The success of bonds like ours shows that small school districts and small communities still largely hold to what makes public ed & interscholastic athletics great; the commitment of communities to investing in and enriching the lives of their young people. Where state leadership has abdicated its responsibility, communities have stepped in big time. 

In a largely atomized, consumption based society, the idea of social cooperation and solidarity is often lost in the mix. To see communities and voters stepping up to invest not just in their own kids, but in other people's kids, gives me a good deal of hope. It makes me feel like we have not lost our soul. That we recognize that I'm not just supposed to care about my kid, but the kid down the street; and the kid who will live down the street 15 years from now. The kids are our kids. We care about each other. We're made to exist in communities. It's embedded in our nature.

All is not lost. Communities from Highland Park to Pampa to Perryton have spoken tonight. And I'm thrilled to see it. And while I still carry some strong disapproval of the election of certain anti-public ed election winners at home and nationally, I find myself seeing tonight as a sign of positive things to come. 

Here's to public education, and to the power of community and care for our fellow human beings.