This month, many Lenawee County residents will have an opportunity to express support for two institutions that are at the very heart of any functioning democracy: public schools and public libraries.

The Adrian and Morenci school districts have renewals of their non-homestead operating millages on the May 7 ballot. And in the city of Adrian, the millage that funds the Adrian District Library — which was first enacted a little under a decade ago — is up for its first renewal.

Public schools and public libraries are fundmentally important to the American ideal of equal opportunity for all. In many ways, they are the two great equalizers of our society.

The first taxpayer-funded public school in the United States was founded before our country itself. In January 1644, the town of Dedham, Massachusetts, established a school that has been called “the seed of American education.”

The growth of public education since then has been a critical part of striving toward the goal that a person’s opportunities in life should not be determined by the circumstances of their birth. Without public schools, the benefits of an education would be largely limited to children who come from families with financial means. A strong public education system is the single best tool we have for ensuring equal opportunity and economic mobility in our nation.

What public schools do for children, public libraries do for — well, everybody.

Public libraries open up access to information. They do this in any number of ways. The most obvious, of course, is in the shelves upon shelves of books that are freely available to all. In the internet age, libraries also create equal opportunity by making sure that everyone, regardless of whether they have a computer or internet access at home, is able to get online for research, communicating with friends and family, applying for jobs, and more.

But perhaps most importantly, libraries provide everyone in our community with access to trained professionals who know how to access, analyze, and use information. It’s not just libraries that are a crucial part of an equal-opportunity, democratic society — it’s librarians themselves.

Our American society, with its government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” can only be healthy if all of our citizens have free and easy access to information and the benefits of education.

On May 7, voters in the Adrian and Morenci areas have an opportunity to send a message that we care about those fundamental values.

The Adrian Public Schools operating millage renewal is responsible for bringing in about $4.7 million per year, or 10.4% of the district’s annual operating budget. For Morenci Area Schools, that number is $937,000, or 12% of the district’s annual operating budget. If the levy is not renewed, this funding would not be replaced, and schools would be forced to make devastating cuts to services.

It’s worth noting that this millage is only on non-homestead property, which means it doesn’t affect any homeowner’s tax bill for their primary residence.

The Adrian District Library millage brings in about $1.2 million per year and is responsible for the vast majority of the library’s funding. The library cannot exist without it.

We need public schools and public libraries in order to have a healthy society that lives up to the American ideal of opportunity for all. The Adrian Public Schools, Morenci Area Schools, and Adrian District Library millage renewals deserve voters’ support on May 7.