Another Wheeler Dealer

As Deep Throat told Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, "Follow the money." I am beginning to think that the only people who support building a new high school out west of I-540 are people who are looking to make big bucks at the expense of the public school kids and the generosity of the taxpayers. Or newspapers that are dependent upon their advertising and do their bidding.

On Sunday, we were treated to two infomercials in the Northwest Arkansas Times that featured over-built strip mall development on Wedington and developer Tracy Hoskins touting the remote location he had unloaded on the school district several years ago. And, oh yes, he still owns lots of undeveloped property nearby, while developers Brandon Barber and Collins Haynes are sitting on unsold lots accruing interest. Imagine that. No wonder Jeff Koenig, Bill Ramsey, and the Cowbirds want the taxpayers to come to the rescue, pay for all the new infrastructure and roads, and build a multi-million dollar high school to stimulate sales for distressed developers and real estate speculators.

Today, Virginia Fedosky has a letter to the editor of the Democrat-Gazette in favor of selling off the current centrally located high school and building a new one near her acreage out on Salem Road. Here's her transparent pitch: "The University of Arkansas would like to buy the present property. This money would go a long way to pay for a new high school. Fayetteville has the needed acreage in a pleasant, attractive area just waiting to be developed." She failed to disclose that her husband retired from the UA Athletic Department in 1990 or how much their land and business on Salem Road, "just waiting to be developed," has appreciated since 1974.

No one is fooled by these grasping Wheeler Dealers looking to make money by pretending to care about the quality of public education and the future of our students. No one with genuine concern for outstanding public education will fall for their phony self-serving arguments or vote for a property tax millage increase to fund the developers' dreams of greater sprawl and more money.