To the editor:

According to the “Sound Off” on March 5, Bruce Passman, director of special services for the Lawrence public school district, stated that the district paid $226,000 in private tuition last year for one student with disabilities so severe he or she could not be “mainlined.”

This is an extraordinarily large amount of money. I cannot begin to fathom how such an expense could be justified. How many other “special needs” students in our district command similar expense? Is this sort of thing partially responsible for the recent talk of school closings and teachers being forced out, actions that will affect hundreds? Why doesn’t the state or federal government absorb such excessive burdens?

The Douglas County change-of-value notices reflecting property value increases of 10 percent should be adequate in fully negating any “need” for the $59 million school bond issue. It is quite insulting to hear tales of woe concerning the deplorable state our school system is in coming from the school board responsible for having mismanaged the system in the first place, resulting in the current situation. Their lack of planning and shortsighted ventures should not continue to be rewarded with ever-increasing monetary expectations from the already overtaxed citizens of Douglas County.

Cynthia Davis,

Lawrence