As a teacher with more than 10 years of experience in the Lewiston public schools, I know that students have needs. I believe that all students, regardless of their zip code, should have access to a high quality public education.

Increasingly, in the state of Maine, educational opportunity depends upon the zip code in which a student resides. This is a result of the failure, year after year, of elected officials in Augusta to fund education at the 55-percent level.

The state’s failure to meet that obligation has resulted in local property taxpayers being pitted against education interests each spring as school budgets are now subject to direct approval by local voters. School administrators and school boards are left to make difficult decisions that they know will leave students without the full range of opportunities that might otherwise be possible.

Question 2 will put more than $150 million into public education statewide, including $4 million in Lewiston, by adding an income-tax surcharge to those persons who make more than $200,000 per year — the top 2 percent. This common sense measure will help return money to local communities and to local property taxpayers.

I know where I will be on election day. I will be standing up for students. I hope others will join me on Nov. 8 and vote “yes” on Question 2.

Brian Banton, Topsham