What’s A Mandate?

To the Editor:

The Bee reports that when the municipal budget was defeated last week, school Superintendent Pitkoff said that he did not think a 53-vote difference was a mandate. And a PTA president actually suggested voting again on exactly the same proposal and blamed the budget defeat on apathy. But it is possible that the majority who voted against the budget were anything but apathetic and were, in fact, enthusiastically offering a mandate to administrators who favor containing spending that increases their property taxes every year.

It is also possible that ignoring the vote suggests arrogance born not so much from a conviction that educating the town’s children is vital, but more from a sense of entitlement — we’re the biggest, therefore we deserve what we want. It almost sounds as if the people in the charge of the biggest part of the budget have fallen prey to the worst effects of monopoly, which are arrogance, a refusal to accept accountability, and a lack of respect for competing needs and points of view.

Beyond Newtown’s borders we have seen corporate monopolies wither when they are too arrogant to adjust to new challenges. And we have seen the current political monopoly waste a mandate, treasure, and thousands of lives by being too arrogant to distinguish reality from agenda. Here at home, let us hope that our school administrators have not become so entrenched that they feel free to ignore the reality that a significant number of voters fear losing their homes to school taxes.

Justin Scott

Parmalee Hill Road, Newtown May 3, 2006