It doesn’t seem that long ago when Arlington sneaked another bond issue through. The promise then was to expand high schools to move ninth grade out of junior highs, followed by sixth-graders moving to junior highs to avoid building additional elementary schools.

The problem is, AISD leadership did not follow through. The high schools were expanded, but sixth grade is still in elementary.

Now, we get another sales pitch, only this time to tear down a junior high. Instead of fulfilling their promises and freeing up elementary space, they want to reduce junior high capacity and add the elementary schools they promised not to build.

There were five National Merit Scholars from Arlington High School alone in 1998. This year there are none.

As educational quality goes down, we should be spending to improve on that, not breaking promises and doing more of the same.

— Jeff Knight,

Arlington