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So another school bond initiative passes. The kids will get their schools and their roofing repairs, and we'll open our wallets even wider when property taxes come due.

Oh joy.

Albuquerque Public Schools honchos successfully made like gunmen using children as shields, as hostages, to shake down enough voters to get their $351 million, our $351 million, whether the rest of us wanted them to or not.

I know, I know. It was for the children. I get it. In my column last Friday I admitted that I had not yet made up my mind on which way to vote Tuesday because I had to weigh my desire to take care of the kids with taking care not to trust APS honchos with another wad of my cash.

Many of you responded. Not a one of you encouraged me to vote "yes."

In the end, I agreed. I was among the 42.47 percent of you who voted "heck no."

"The bond issues have been a question to me for years," reader B.C. wrote in an e-mail. "I have seen the same bond projects on the ballots year after year with no one in APS trying or attempting to give a reasonable answer for that."

B.C., who identified himself (herself?) as a longtime APS teacher from a long line of teachers, took a closer look at where bond money was going. The conclusion?

"To date, I have voted against 75 percent of bonds, not because the children didn't deserve them or need them, but because APS never used them for what they asked for," B.C. wrote.

Our agonizing over voting would have been eased tremendously had we one scintilla of confidence that APS administrators intended to correct their and the school board's "incompetence and arrogance," reader Silvio wrote.

"Maybe a complete house cleaning is the only solution," he said. "But I don't see that happening as there is too much complacency here among citizens."

Nanci613 wondered if voters understood how expensive this "potential boondoggle" will cost.

"I'm not against the schools or the kids having a great place to learn, even though I have no children in APS, but is everyone aware how much we will be paying for these improvements?" she asked.

Oh what devilish pleasure I will have when the nine out of every 10 registered voters who didn't even bother to go to the polls learn they now have to shell out $71.32 more in property taxes for every $100,000 at which their homes are valued.

Though the votes are in and the bond has passed, Queen Elizabeth Everitt and her ilk would be wise to clean up their house before building new ones. This was, I believe, not a vote of confidence for the APS brass but a vote for the kids. In the end, it really was for the children.

Dimp66, another teacher, e-mailed me about the time APS came hat in hand for another bond election during the 1988-89 school year. Then, two Truman Middle School teachers took matters into their own hands by printing and dispensing fliers to Truman parents that reminded them that once before APS had begged for bonds to build walls and more classrooms. Ten years later, those improvements never materialized.

The fliers, she said, worked.

"Parents called APS. APS sent a delegation to meet with the parents. Within weeks, construction began on walls for the classrooms, and that summer more classrooms were constructed," she wrote.

This time around, she advised parents of children at the schools earmarked for the impending cash flows to keep on top of bond money, to keep their eyes open and to keep their dialing finger limber.

"Parents need to continue to inquire when the job will begin," she wrote. "Push, push, push."

I'll be pushing, too.