Couch: We owe Lansing's students a YES vote Tuesday

LANSING – As senior class president Myles Johnson moved through the poorly lit hallways at Lansing’s J.W. Sexton High School Thursday afternoon, he spoke of his loyalty to the old building, its people and the only school district he’s ever known.

“I stay because we’re an underdog,” Johnson said, returning a phone call in his few minutes between the end of the school day and his first extracurricular commitment. “I like to be an underdog.”

Lansing schools should not be an underdog. They didn’t used to be. School-of-choice legislation two decades ago over time has fleeced the district of many students and invested parents.

You might be among those who left. You might be hesitant to send your child to Lansing’s schools, a district that once warranted no hesitation. You might not have school-age children.

I’ll still ask this of you: Vote and vote YES Tuesday on the Lansing schools bond proposal, a $120-million, 25-year millage.

What you need to know about the Lansing School District's upcoming millage

I’m a proud Lansing schools graduate — Verlinden Elementary, Otto Middle, Sexton High — and I’m not sure I’d send my kids through the district right now. That’s an issue. But not today’s issue.

This is about giving the district a chance at having a chance. Tuesday alone isn’t the answer. It isn’t close to enough money. It won’t change perceptions, many deep-rooted, untrue and unfair. But it helps to make sure the next Myles Johnson doesn’t see the need to leave Lansing to feel valued, educated or safe, to have a rich experience. Students deserve that. As a community, at minimum, we owe them that much.

If you can’t afford the slight property tax increase — estimated to be as little $3 a month on a home with a market value of $100,000 — call me. I’ll organize a bake sale or sell your plasma for you. Whatever the price, I assure you, it’ll be less than the toll on the value of your home if the district slides into an irreparable abyss.

Editorial: Vote yes for Lansing pathways

This millage would go primarily to renovating and modernizing facilities, an area where the district has lagged behind and done so at a bad time, as the marketplace for students has become open and competitive.

Some of it would pay to remodel buildings to fit the programs of the Pathway Promise, a three-track initiative for career and college readiness — a noble effort — beginning as early as elementary school. This includes turning Pattengill Academy into Eastern High School. 

Some of it is as simple as updating lights that flicker embarrassingly as Johnson and other Sexton students walk through the halls.

“It just looks dingy,” Johnson said. “You’ve got wood missing from the doors. There are (light) fixtures missing. Some windows have blinds, some don’t. It’s like, what the heck?”

Despite the shabby interior the building remains an architectural beauty. And Johnson said he feels prepared by Sexton for college. He’ll attend Bowling Green State University next year, where he intends to study supply chain management.

“Because I took the initiative,” said Johnson, whose extracurricular activities include student government, peer mentoring, African American club, prom committee, Rotary Club and baseball.

It’s an impressive resume. But Myles Johnson isn’t Magic Johnson. He’s normal kid in a district that still has many of them. A district that’s fallen on hard times for reasons of its own making and circumstances beyond its control.

This vote is a small part in altering those circumstances.

Vote YES Tuesday.

Graham Couch can be reached at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch

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