Our Schools Are

Underfunded

To the Editor:

It is budget time, and local officials have had the chance to parse the education budget and make cuts, which undermine education officials and put more cracks in the foundation of our community. In fact, the $900,000 reduction in the education budget request is both short sighted and irresponsible.

It is true that we face difficult economic times, and to accept per gallon gasoline prices approaching $4, when it was $1.46 per gallon at the beginning of the George W. Bush presidency, is shameful. To accept the fact that “Big Oil” profits under the “Big Oil President” are at all-time highs is shameful. To accept the economic strain on families and rise in foreclosures is shameful. To accept the financial burdens that the federal government has put on local governments is shameful. To accept an expenditure of between three and four trillion dollars in Iraq and the enormous loss of life, military and civilian, in Iraq is shameful. To accept that health care is not available to every US citizen is shameful. It is also shameful to underfund educational budgets. But, the fact remains that the only place many people feel they have control of expenditures and taxation is their vote on the local budget, and the largest piece of the local budget in Newtown is the education budget. We cannot reduce and vote directly on gas prices, mortgage rates, federal mandates, war expenditures, and health care. But we can reduce and vote directly on the education budget.

The middle class is shrinking and under attack, and there is a resulting knee jerk reaction. As we spend more on gas, we want to cut spending on books. As we pay more on our mortgages, we want to spend less on our teachers. As we support advancement of weapon technology, we want to reduce support for educational technology. As we pay more for our military arsenal, we want to spend less on athletics and the arts in our schools.

One could argue the denial of appropriate funding for our schools is part of a Bush legacy of excessive war spending, soaring gas and energy costs, an economic recession, tax cuts for the wealthy, and more. The Newtown Finance Committee feels they cannot support the funding level recommended by the Newtown Board of Education. The Board of Education is entrusted to guide and decide on issues regarding educational programming and the financial support needed for education.

Nationally, our educational systems, and therefore our children, have become sacrificial lambs offered up to the gods of war, recession, and profits for the wealthy. Our schools are underfunded. Now, that is shameful. The policies, spending, debt and recession associated with the G.W. Bush era have failed us and have begun to crack the very foundations of Newtown and local communities across the country. That is more than shameful … it is destructive! We cannot condone any further reduction to our financial support for education and expect to prosper as a community and as a nation.

Sincerely,

Richard English

3 Curry Drive, Newtown                                                   March 9, 2008