Wiser people than us have said knowledge is power, but recently we’ve been feeling that the power that comes with knowledge really means freedom.
In a nation where freedom is due north in our moral compass it’s difficult to watch the squeeze continue to happen on education budgets all around the county.
It’s not a unique problem we’re having; we’re a small part of the whole issue and the budgets we’ve seen are the fruit of a poisonous tree.
We commend school committees that draw up budgets meant to balance the best interests of students’ education and futures, while considering the impact to residents’ wallets.
However, it’s unsustainable.
Just because the budgets are getting bigger doesn’t mean there are more resources available to our students.
Local education budgets are often not exorbitant in their own expenditures and the most significant increases in costs are often pay related, with some mandates at the state or federal level. These all too often unfunded mandates leave municipalities scrambling to raise and appropriate those funds.
We haven’t a solution to offer, but this is a note of concern about the sustainability of the practice of creating razor thin budgets, year in and year out.
If this resonates with you, there are people to contact. Call your representatives and describe to them the rock and the hard place we’ve been forced between.
Public life can be an unforgiving one and we appreciate the work members of school committees, budget committees, and select boards have put into making education tenable, while keeping the area we love so dearly affordable to live in.
