On reflection, St. Joseph voters indeed are willing supporters of their public schools. For evidence you need look no further than the results of Tuesday's balloting on the 63-cent levy.

A victory margin of 12 percentage points in the midst of a lousy economy is considerable. And remember, we're talking about taxpayers who had a choice.

Rejecting the levy was possible, but not wise. We could have eaten deeply into the school district's reserves and then at the eleventh hour endured yet another tax election simply to plug the holes in the boat. But now that won't be necessary.

In the days leading up to the election, a handful of opponents stressed this was not a vote to "renew" a levy. As they noted, the levy from the previous five years was beaten at the polls in April and is not on this year's tax bills. Rather, they said voters needed to treat this as a new tax.

It didn't matter. The vote will stand as a strong statement that this community, with its aging school buildings and reputation for fiscal conservatism, has little interest in taking a step backward.

The next steps will be forward, but into unknown territory. A citizens' group pledged a two-pronged approach: restore the $6 million in annual school funding provided by the levy, and engage all interested persons in developing a long-range strategic plan.

The vote on the levy demonstrates a measure of trust in those who led the campaign, and in the school board members and administrators who will oversee the spending of the tax dollars collected.

That trust is vitally needed if the community is now going to gather in a months-long process to sort out what "quality education for our schoolchildren" really means, and how we collectively will pay for that in the coming years.