Lancaster ISD proposes to borrow money for 30 years to buy (among other things) laptops.

Did you know laptops, like most computers, will be obsolete in 3 years?

The school administration assures us that in the first few years of the bond repayment period, we'll apply those payments to the assets with the shortest depreciation period. Like laptops. This is exactly like how I make the monthly payments on my five-year auto loan. The first year's payments apply to the windshield wipers. Then I apply payments to the air filters, fan belt, and the tires. Then I pay for the upholstery, floor mats, and timing chain. Only after all those items have worn out and been replaced do any of my car payments apply to slow-depreciation parts of the car like the transmission, engine, and paint job. Of course that's how my loan contract works -- doesn't everybody's?

But then, maybe a 5-year car loan is different than borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars for three decades.

Maybe it's not.

But there is nothing obviously and certainly illegal about this.

But maybe, just maybe, there ought to be.