EDITOR:

At one time there were at least eight grade schools within the Escanaba Public School System. I believe we are now down to two traditional grade schools – Lemmer and Soo Hill. I discount webster as it is Kindergarten only and that’s another story.

So discussion is continuing behind the scenes in our school regarding the closing of another building in the Escanaba school system due to falling enrollment. This is happening in a great many areas in our county, which begs the question why? Why are school enrollments falling while the population in many areas of the country has, in fact, increased. We are not even replacing ourselves as parents these days since the average family birthrate is 1.765 according to the CDC. Some reasons for this decline include the age of a woman’s first pregnancy (therefore fertility is often a problem), birth control, abortion and economic factors (like lack of income but it is also a “me, me, me” world). Like it or not we, as a nation, killed more than 638,169 babies in 2015. Michigan alone recorded 27,151 abortions that year. That equates to 905 classrooms having an average of 30 students per class.

Now I realize that many people do not consider abortion to be murder and therefore a moral issue. But our schools through the MEA and the NEA support Planned Parenthood (which is a for profit institution) thereby helping to lower the amount of children born every year. So if you don’t see abortion as a moral issue, maybe you should look at it as an economic issue. You cannot keep schools and school buildings open if you do not have the student base to fill them.

Bonnie Cowell

Escanaba