Residents of Ames will head to the polls today to vote on an issue many students find irrelevant: sales tax for education.

ISU students might think the tax and its purpose don’t matter to them, but they would be missing the bigger picture.

The 1 percent local-option tax, if approved in the countywide vote, would bring the sales tax to 7 percent for a duration of 10 years.

Revenue from the tax, which is estimated at $86 million total during the 10 years, would be used in Ames to build a new middle school and to add on to the high school. By law, the tax can only be used on school infrastructure.

Some ISU students, particularly those GSB senators who voted for a bill condemning the tax, think paying a tax that would help education in Ames isn’t worth it. They say that since they don’t have children in the Ames school district, they should not have to pay the extra 1 percent.

They are 100 percent wrong.

Sure, most ISU students don’t have kids yet. And when they do procreate, their children probably will not go to school in Ames.

But they will go to school somewhere.

And wherever ISU students eventually live, they will pay property taxes or sales taxes or income taxes to keep up schools and to pay for other community necessities.

And someone in those communities, who doesn’t have children or whose children are out of school, will also pay property taxes or sales taxes or income taxes to keep up the schools.

It might not seem fair. But it is.

The education of our children is not just the responsibility of the parents. It is the burden of everyone within a community. Educated children don’t just benefit their parents, they benefit the whole society.

Iowa in general, and Ames specifically, boasts of cultivating a thriving education system. We claim to have some of the best students and teachers in the country, but when it comes to paying for it, we are pathetically lacking.

It’s time to put our money where our mouths are.

There are definitely reservations about instituting any new taxes. We must be assured that those overseeing the revenue from this sales tax will use it wisely and responsibly, and they won’t come back to us looking for more money because of mismanagement.

But those reservations aside, there is no reason not to vote for this tax. The children who will benefit from improvements at their schools will serve all of us in Ames, and we will be repaid the favor by thousands of other people who will support our children someday.

The polls open at 7 a.m. today and close at 8 p.m. Get out there and vote.

Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Sara Ziegler, Greg Jerrett, Kate Kompas, Carrie Tett and David Roepke.