BAILEY RYAN, West Richland

Students are greatly affected by policies enacted by school boards, but they generally have no say in the policy themselves.

When the Richland School Board members were talking about bonds and building new schools and converting existing ones, did they speak with any current or former students about how they thought the schools could be improved?

Many students do have opinions about how some small changes to schools could greatly improve them or reduce the financial needs of an institution.

Many schools require only minor adjustments because of age. The bigger issue is class size. If students were allowed to have more choices about the schools they could attend, the class sizes would be more manageable.

Having more schools available to students would cause more students to be able to learn their own way and thus better. When they can learn better, they will be able to be educated better, without being disheartened with the usual struggles students encounter when they are being forced to learn in a way that is unnatural to them.

So, why don't school systems involve students more in the policy making system?