Return $2.5 Million To

The School Budget

To the Editor:

When did educating our young people, who are the future of our country, become a luxury? When did we start putting the future needs behind the past?

I was shocked to hear that after months of diligent work and negotiations by our superintendent that the Board of Finance has decided to cut an additional $2.5 million from an already lean education budget. It was apparent that the Board of Finance, who is supposed to be strictly advisory, does not wish to give taxpayers the opportunity to pass a budget that would allow our school district the means to provide the education we all want.

The PISA Listing, Programme for International Student Assessment, ranks scholastic education among industrialized countries. Students of the United States of America rank 15th in reading literacy, 24th in mathematics, and 21st in science. We are consistently behind countries such a Finland, South Korea, and the Czech Republic. Having personally lived in both the Czech Republic and South Korea, I witnessed how parents worked tirelessly each day, sacrificing personally, to ensure that their children received the best education possible. My parents did the same and perhaps your parents did the same for you. So why is the Board of Finance now allowed to decide that our children should not be afforded the same quality education we all had?

Some may chose to dismiss the PISA information, but I caution you to think of this. These young people, who the Board of Finance have chosen to short change, will be our future teachers, accountants, shop keepers, manufacturers, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. Our children will someday be making decisions that could possibly impact your life. Do you want them to be ready for the challenges of the global market and be prepared to do the best job in their field for you and for the economic future of our country? Or do you want to sit back and say, “Hey, the town saved a few tax dollars in fiscal year 2010-11, and I am going to live comfortably on the interest saved from that money?”

The Board of Finance chose to cut just over $288,000 from the “town side” of the budget — one tenth of what they are choosing to cut from the education side of the budget. Why the disparity? Have we sunk so far down that we have lost the dream that our forefathers and mothers came to this country for? Have we forgotten that our children are our future and that is where we need to focus our resources?

Are all of you, the fiscal authority of the town, strong enough to stand up to the Board of Finance, which is supposed to be “strictly advisory”? This is a question only the 12 of you can answer.

As a parent and a taxpayer, I beg you to reinstate the $2.5 million to the education budget and allow me to vote for a budget with the adequate services I desire for my children.

Sincerely,

Donna Monteleone Randle

4 Erin Lane, Sandy Hook                                              March 16, 2010