The vote on whether to build a new middle school in the Snoqualmie Valley School District is coming down to the wire.

Asking taxpayers to pay more at a time when the economy is shaky and people hurting is perilous. Additionally, many taxpayers feel their money is not being spent wisely. They believe it’s being spent to satisfy political agendas. School construction is a case in point.

In 2005, the state legislature passed a law requiring all new schools in Washington to meet costly “green” building standards. Advocates claimed schools would save 30 to 50 percent on energy and that the requirements would pay for themselves quickly.

They even claimed that building schools to these standards would increase student test scores. Unfortunately, the reality has not lived up to their promises.

The Washington Policy Center has compared many “green” schools with the energy use of schools in the same district built before the mandate. The results have been consistent. In virtually every case, the “green” school uses more energy than a comparable traditional school in the same district.

These “green” buildings also cost more to build. For Snoqualmie Valley’s new middle school, that adds about $3.3 million to the cost. Savings, however, are small, amounting to about 10 percent or $5,000 a year. Spending millions up front to save a few thousand dollars a year makes no sense. Not surprisingly, “green” schools do not improve student test scores despite the promises of advocates.

The blame lies not with the school districts, who are required to meet the costly and ineffective rules, but with politicians who were seduced by a green fad, hoping to burnish their environmental credentials with voters.

Personally, I voted “yes” for the Snoqualmie Valley levy in February. It isn’t right to punish school kids for the legislature’s foolishness.

It is worth asking, however, in an election in which every vote matters, doesn’t every dollar count, too? If we care about children and the environment, we need to make sure they do. The growing sense that taxpayers are not getting what they pay for certainly plays a role in the difficulty of passing a levy. The failure of “green” schools only adds to the feeling that voters are being misled.

Todd Myers, Environmental Director, Washington Policy Center, Sammamish resident