We need to put economics to work to solve some of our school budget shortfalls. Consider the cost of student parking. Our school district charges a student $20 per semester for the privilege to park at the school. This is too low.

The parking lot in front of the school has about 100 stalls and is about five times the size of the homes adjacent to the school, homes that might rent for about $800 per month. This means that the district might be able to collect about $480 per year in rent for each stall if this land was used for another purpose. Instead, the school district is having us make up the difference in some sum of uncollected rent, perhaps as much as $42,000 per year for just that front parking lot.

If the school board chooses to adjust rental rates for parking stalls, we might see needed renewed interest in conservative methods of commuting. This might be all the proof we need to build a smaller parking lot at a new high school.

David Willson

North Bend