By Donna Westfall – February 16, 2021 Last year I paid our property taxes by walking into the County Offices and handing them my letter of protest along with my check. Here's the essence. "I don't like paying taxes when I'm not getting what I'm paying for. In this case, our children in public schools are failing. Obviously something is drastically wrong. Having reading and math proficiency at around 50% and 25% respectively, is UNACCEPTABLE." For the amounts of money we (taxpayer's) are paying, we should have students that perform so much better. What are we paying for? Undereducated children are not going to continue as long as taxpayer's have a say. I'd almost encourage everyone to stop paying their property taxes if I thought enough would go along. You know something, when Rosa Parks wouldn't go to the back of the bus, and the town wouldn't change their tune about discrimination, the Blacks boycotted the buses for over a year. After that time, buses became integrated. If money made for better schools, our children would be performing at the top in the world. That's not happening. Teacher's make a great living. Administrators make a great living. Forget the pandemic. Even before the pandemic, students were failing and underperforming. What makes you think anything will change even when schools are back in session?