Former Gov. Jim Martin has seen what happens when schools can't use the most economical financing for new construction. He has fresh experience as leader of a damage-control committee tapped by Charlotte and Mecklenburg County after voters defeated a $427 million bond issue for schools last November.

What Martin shared with one group of Wake residents last week needs to be heard from Apex to Wake Forest and all points in between. As Wake voters consider a $970 million school bond issue on Nov. 7, Martin's advice is this: Beware of handicapping this community by refusing it the schools it needs.

"You get more overcrowding, more year-round schools, more unhappiness about growth and more dissatisfaction with the school system," the Lake Norman Republican said. The way Martin tells it, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg experience strongly argues for a yes vote on Wake's bonds.

Like Wake, Mecklenburg County expects no letup in the flood of new students. Bonds would have raised money to build new schools while renovating and expanding others, but disgruntled voters said no.

The effects of the bond defeat weren't expected for three years or so, time enough to recover, or so one might have thought. Martin was asked to lead a citizens group through Mecklenburg's options. As reported by The N&O's Matthew Eisley, Martin described the outcome during a forum in Raleigh sponsored by the nonprofit N.C. Policy Watch.

Most citizens came to see that the schools' needs were real and recommended that $172 million be borrowed immediately. Their only option was to use more expensive certificates of participation, because voter approval isn't required. Despite a warning of a costly reduction in Mecklenburg's bond rating, the group conceded that a referendum on a $400 million issue will be needed next year.

Meantime, some Mecklenburg families complain of kids being tutored in closets and hallways. A few schools are running out of land on which to place classroom trailers, and parents wonder out loud if they should move out of the county.

How far they may have to move is becoming an ever more pertinent question. As The Charlotte Observer reports, enrollment is surging in surrounding counties too. In fact, Union County, the traditional haven for people seeking to avoid Mecklenburg taxes, has a school bond issue on this year's ballot and expects to have another in 2008.

For all the upheaval caused by the bond defeat, property owners are getting less than a 2 percent tax break. Granted, even a small tax cut helps elderly people on fixed incomes, folks who can be helped by raising the homestead exemption. But for the average Charlottean who owns a $200,000 house, denying schools has put just $35.80 in his pocket.

The same size property tax cut would save Wake homeowners even less, because the rate is lower here. And Wake property taxes would remain lower than Mecklenburg's even with the 4.7-cent tax rate increase needed to repay the school bonds. In the bargain, Wake schools could offer educational opportunity to more students and make this a better place to live for everyone.