Budget Vote Doesn’t Represent The Spirit And Priorities Of The Town

To the Editor,

Now that the town budget has been defeated, I am very concerned that a half a million dollars must now be cut from a school budget that had already been pared to the bone by the Board of Education. I am depressed by this for a number of reasons. First, it is clear from the vote totals, and from what I’ve learned talking to people, that thousands of people who wanted the budget to pass were so busy and so certain that it would pass that they did not get out and vote. What has happened did not have to happen. Second, it is clear to me from some phone calling I did in support of the budget that there is a group of voters in town whose opposition to town budgets is automatic and has nothing to do with the content of the budget. Several people told me, straight out, that they voted against town budgets because they did not currently have children in the schools. They did not say that the budget was extravagant. They simply indicated that since they were not now using the most expensive of the town’s services, they wanted to keep their property taxes as low as possible.

You know, at a certain level, it is humiliating, under the current system, to be a parent. In order to support a school system to educate your children, you’re forced, in effect, to beg your neighbors for money. All of these neighbors know that they’d have to pay to educate the local children wherever they lived, but still, they want to keep as much of their money as they can. They can hardly be blamed for this. But where does that leave your children? And everyone else’s? I hate the way in which this system sets up this inevitable conflict, and this is why I am in favor of tax abatements for senior citizens and for people unable to pay. At the same time, I knew the streets and houses I was calling. Few of these people could not afford to pay the increase. They simply wanted to vote to limit their contribution to the “charity,” my daughter’s education, that I was so desperate to get money for. No one I spoke with was so ill-informed as to tell me that Newtown’s teachers were overpaid or that it wouldn’t make any difference to have 30 students in an elementary school class. These were serious people, but I was, in effect, asking them for money. They wanted to have the right to avert their eyes, as if I were sitting at a table out in front of Stop & Shop, collecting money for a worthy but unavoidably expensive cause. Many of these people voted. Not enough of the supporters did. And Newtown, which now spends less per pupil than any comparable town in the state, may next year spend less than any town in the state.

I don’t feel that the majority of people in this generous and public-spirited town really think that it is appropriate that we should spend less to educate each of our schoolchildren than virtually any other town in Connecticut. If you look at the 1998-9 Connecticut Town Profile Data Files on the State of Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development web site at http://www.state.ct.us/ecd/research/townprof98/datafile.htm, you will see that virtually all of the towns that spend less per pupil than Newtown are comparatively poor rural and industrial towns in the northeast corner of the state. If you look at the state statistics on teacher salaries, you will see that the only towns that pay their teachers less than Newtown are rural towns with a low cost of living. Newtown ranks 38th (out of 169) in the state in per capita income. What sense does it make that we should be in the cellar in these important categories? I know that we all want to keep our property taxes low, but we are getting away awfully cheap, by squeezing our school system to a degree that other towns don’t. I don’t think we mean to do this. But it’s happening. While our demographics and competent teachers will probably keep our Mastery scores in an acceptable range for the foreseeable future, there is a real question as to how much more we can squeeze our school system before it can no longer provide the excellence, the inspiration, the creativity, and the individual attention we’re proud of.

It’s customary in Newtown to say that even though we spend so much less than other towns, we can still have an excellent school system, because our parents and educators have a unique spirit of dedication. While we continue to deprive the schools of the resources they need, how many more times can we say this before we start sounding like a bunch of jerks? After a while, one might begin to wonder if the unique spirit of our parents and educators is born of necessity, rather than pride. One might begin to wonder if it is a valiant effort to make sure that Newtown does not have the mediocre school system one would expect to find in a town that ranked near the bottom of Connecticut towns in per-pupil-expenditure. One might begin to wonder if the only thing that is really unique about Newtown is that it is the only town in the top quadrant for per capita income that is content to rank in the bottom quadrant for teachers’ salary and in the bottom ten for expenditure per pupil.

I certainly might begin to wonder these things after a few more votes like this one. I still think, however, that these embarrassing statistics are a fluke that do not represent the spirit and priorities of the town. We will have to work harder, though, to keep what’s apparent in these statistics from being the real truth. If you vote “no” in a budget election, please don’t just do it automatically, because you don’t have kids in the schools. Please look at the budget carefully, decide if it seems fair and thrifty, and weigh the legitimate needs in it against your ability to pay. Please don’t just vote “no” because, no matter what needs there are, you want to pay as little as possible for the education of the town’s children. If you supported this budget and didn’t vote because of lack of time, or a sense that it was going to pass anyway, please don’t ever do anything like this again. The only way we can stop a slide into mediocrity is if the supporters of the town budget make sure that they get out to vote.

In the meantime, we have no choice but to show up at the May 15 town meeting. The budget cannot be allowed to become worse than this. Further cuts would be disastrous. Please show up to that meeting and let your voice be heard.

Dana Brand

32 Hi Barlow Road, Newtown                                        May 8, 2000