Education should have top priority

To the editor:

Don Dickerson, president of the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents, seems to answer to no one. He is suggesting expansion of the proposed 950-seat performance hall on the River Campus with 450 additional seats at $10,000 per seat. And regent Brad Bedell says not to be shortsighted over "a couple million bucks." I'm glad Bedell doesn't balance my checkbook. A "couple million bucks" is not $4.5 million.

Wednesday's front-page story follows Dickerson's pattern: suggest that more taxes might occur, then move forward with architectural plans.

My thanks to regent Edward Matthews III for suggesting that education has priority over building debt. The expansion is a risk when you don't have money in the bank. And my thanks to regent John Tlapek for suggesting a survey of the public. These leaders are listening to the undercurrent here in Cape Girardeau.

Taxpayers are drowning in the River Campus wish list. Concert promoter Steve Litman discourages a survey and says "such surveys mean little. Until somebody builds a facility, people don't necessarily know they want it." I think we have just been called stupid.

V. HAHN, Cape Girardeau