Of all the items missing from the bonding bill proposed by the state Senate,

the most glaring was the lack of any matching funds for United South Central School District’s building in Wells. The school district requests $25 million.

The $990 million bonding bill cruised through the Senate on a 56-9 vote. It’s bad enough that the school district can’t get its own voters to approve the money to pay for a new school. Now the state seems uninterested, too.

We saw that state colleges and universities were big winners in the Senate bonding bill. It seems the Senate has the cart before the horse. It wants to make a good higher education system better before it saves a struggling public school from crumbling.

This is the Midwest, the part of the country with the best schools. Support for education is woven into the fabric of the people. This is the greatest place to raise children.

Wells, Kiester, Freeborn, Easton, Walters and Bricelyn are fine places for families to live, and those families deserve quality education for their children just like anyplace else. They shouldn’t be punished if their desires are dashed by other voters who don’t think education is a priority. And they shouldn’t be punished if their desires are dashed by senators who don’t think education is a priority.

Let’s hope the proposed bonding bill in the state House of Representatives gives those families what they deserve.