Tuesday’s election results no doubt will go down as a watershed moment in public school education in Vicksburg.

By a margin of just more than 68 percent, voters approved an $83 million bond issue to improve facilities into which we send our children every day.

To know the overwhelming majority of Tuesday’s voters were willing to make an investment in our children and our community’s future is gratifying.

The move will also serve our community in terms of economic development, too. Others looking to move or develop their businesses here will be much more likely to do so knowing our community is a willing investor in our children’s education.

Rebuilding a business or a public school district doesn’t happen overnight. It’s more like turning a barge in the river — slow and meticulous. Good things are happening in the Vicksburg Warren School District, slowly perhaps, but surely.

Graduation rates are up. Discipline problems are down. More students are reading where they need to be by the third grade. And, thanks to our business community, our children are learning responsibility and the qualities of leaders at a very early age through the Leader in Me program.

Most importantly, our school district is making changes in an effort to make certain our students, when they graduate, have a skill and are able to seek meaningful employment, are prepared to further their education in college, or are able to start their own businesses as entrepreneurs.

For far too long, our students and teachers have had to spend their days in old, outdated facilities, worrying about whether the roof will leak or how to safely plug in the electronics they need to use to teach their students, when their classrooms are equipped with limited and outdated electrical service in classrooms.

That’s about to change. The planned improvements will make our schools safer and make them ready for the technology students need access to today.

After the improvement plans are completed, our children and faculty and staff — indeed our entire community — will have school facilities in which we can take pride.

If you needed proof that ours is a generous, forward-thinking community, you now have it.

Our children and our grandchildren are better off today because of the investment we will make in their future.

Thank you, Vicksburg and Warren County.