A wise man once told me, "if you want to save money, don't buy what you need, buy what you need to get by."

Too often our wants and desires become needs. My understanding is that the school needs a new furnace. But does it really need a "biomass" furnace?

Sometimes people ask my advice (believe it or not) about buying cars. I give people two bits of advice: 1. Do not buy anything exotic. Make sure parts are easily available and that there are many repair shops around the country capable of service/ repair of the vehicle you are looking at. 2. Do not buy anything that is a "new design." If the vehicle has not been in production for several years then the "bugs" have not yet been worked out of that design. I wonder if this "biomass" furnace fits in either of these categories.

I also wonder if the decision to buy a biomass furnace is a purely researched and thought out decision or if it is influenced by the latest "go green" fad. At a school appropriation meeting I voiced that thought and was told about "the rows and rows of wind generators in Iowa that are a wonderful investment in our future." (The same kind of wind generators Ted Kennedy loved, but not in his neighborhood).

With all do respect, I don't think being a school official, in itself, makes anyone an energy expert or an expert in heating and cooling. Like I said at the meeting, I would have to see some hard facts and numbers before I would agree to spend money on anything. None were shown to me at or after the meeting.

During George W. Bush's first three years in office he increased education spending 58 percent over the previous administration's eight year term (courtesy: factcheck.org). In 2007, the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported 12th graders were actually performing worse in reading than 12th graders did in 1992 when given comparable tests (courtesy: New York Times). Money itself does not fix anything.
Daniel DeYonge
Staples, Minn.