To the editor:

After reading in the Lawrence Journal-World about the Lawrence school board voting to hire an accounting firm to audit USD 497 books, I thought maybe the accounting firm could be directed to let the voters and taxpayers of the district know what has happened to all of the money that did not go to the classroom.

Remember the Wendy’s ads several years ago about “Where’s the beef?” Well, we taxpayers want know: “Where’s the money?” Why does the district allocate only 55 percent of our tax dollars to the classroom this year and only 51 percent next year? The national average for the 50 states is 61.5 percent, and yet USD 497 is asking for $63 million for a bond issue, when we don’t know what the district has done with over $43 million this year and almost $50 million next year that did not and will not make it to the classroom. Where’s the money?

Jim Mullins,

Lawrence