School Spending Is No Luxury       

To the Editor:

Two weeks ago, in a front page editorial entitled “A Newtown We Can All Afford,” The Bee essentially endorsed the larger budget the town is now considering, while pointing out that we needed to pay particular attention to the situation of residents who might find it difficult to afford the necessary increase in property taxes. Your editorial noted that “Newtowners are driving bigger cars and building bigger houses” and there is consequently “a demand for a bigger municipal budget” to serve the needs of an “increasingly prosperous town.” We in SOS (Support Our Schools) are glad to see The Bee endorse what we feel is a necessary budget increase, and we support the efforts the town is now making to find an equitable way to give relief to those who might not be able to afford any increase, and to expand the town’s tax base without damaging the town’s character. We’d like to make the point however that the increase in the town’s budget is very moderate and pays for things that are very basic. This is not a luxury budget designed to go with bigger cars and bigger houses. It will benefit everyone in town, at every income level.

If you look at this year’s Newtown school budget, you will not see much in the way of bells and whistles. You’ll see an effort to stay afloat: to keep the teachers’ health insurance funded; to stay within district guidelines for class size; to provide for the most basic technological needs; to relieve overcrowding; to remain marginally competitive as better-funded districts try to buy up our finest teachers. While passage of this budget may move us up a little from 160th out of 169, we’re still going to be pretty far down on the list of Connecticut towns for per-pupil expenditure. This budget is just enough to prevent decline. A decline in the quality of Newtown’s schools would probably force more people out of town than the proposed increase in property taxes. A decline would hurt everyone in town because the resulting decline in property values would cost us all more than the taxes necessary to maintain the quality of the schools.

Even with our current relative prosperity, Newtown is not becoming a town only for the rich. Unlike Wilton or New Canaan, it is and we hope it will remain a town where people who are far from rich can afford to buy a home and have their children enjoy the benefits of a first-rate school system. With adequate resources, our schools can produce exceptional results. If the schools don’t have adequate resources, our property taxes might be a little lower, but the people of the town, at all income levels, will no longer benefit from the greatest educational bargain the state has to offer. Our group, Support Our Schools, is representative of the parents of children in the Newtown schools in that it contains people with all kinds of incomes, who are united by a commitment to preserve the universal access to educational excellence that the Newtown school system offers. We agree with The Bee that no one should be driven out of Newtown for any reason. To that end, we want to make sure that Newtown remains an inclusive town that educates its children well.

Support Our Schools

Dana Brand

32 Hi Barlow Road, Newtown                                   March 29, 2000