Legislative Council Cries Wolf Again

To the Editor:

I would like to recognize the seven Legislative Council members who courageously voted for Fran Pennarola’s failed motion to restore $500,000 to the town budget, and I am disappointed but not surprised by the five (Jeff Capeci, Will Rodgers, Danny Amaral, Joe DiCandido and John Aurelia) who did not. Though the subsequent motion of $200,000 passed by 9 of 12 votes, it is a drop in the bucket in the Sahara Desert.

Year after year, the Legislative Council “cries wolf” and says “it’s a very bad budget year.” So, cuts are made according to what the Legislative Council “thinks” people will support. In the less lean years, there was no reason to “cry wolf,” yet slowly, slowly the Legislative Council has allowed the budgets to be chipped away right down to the foundation. The Legislative Council would have us believe that “current” economic times substantiate the debilitating reductions. However, the economy is only a component of a larger problem. If one looks back over the course of a decade, our school system has declined sharply under their watch. I would have been more sympathetic, even supportive this year of the efforts made by our elected leaders to responsibly reduce the budget if only in the prior years they had left something upon which our schools could continue to thrive rather than to just “survive,” or in our present case, decline. Longtime members and persistent No voters of the council (and their “advisory” agents, the Board of Finance), have created the legacy of a school district in “reverse gear.”

I’d like to settle another point. The “research on larger numbers in the classroom” does not exist because no person in their right mind would willingly offer up their children to prove what we all know is true; the children would remain behind. This was not the time to risk our country’s future by not addressing the significant shift in skills of the children who are coming, or have already come into our schools at more disparate proficiency levels than ever before. There are also new skills that must be learned to be able to compete in a dynamic 21st Century economy.

So, I am curious if the Legislative Council members who did not vote to restore the cuts, per Fran’s motion, will now volunteer their time in the classroom teaching skills to children who will be underserved by the current budget. It’s the very least they could do if in fact we are all “pulling together” in this time of need.

Desiree Galassi

151 Huntingtown Road, Newtown                              March 29, 2009