The Dilemma Of The Budget

To the Editor:

How shall we decide the next vote for budget approval? For us to answer this question, ask yourself how we got to this problem in the first place since this has become a yearly nail-biter for all of us. I attended a recent budget discussion at the town hall and ventured to say that the cart had been put before the horse. I meant: Look for the root causes and this meeting would not have to take place.

Certainly, the biggest driver is the cost of education. It should not be so. It should be affordable on every level from kindergarten to college. It is not. The cause of all this is the luxurious growth of the demands of the teachers’ unions across our country and nowhere more so than in our town.

In my opinion, the Board of Education has been emasculated in its every effort to control the cost of education ever since tenure for teachers was enacted, incidentally long before the 14th Amendment which prohibits laws which are limited to specific groups. In this case, your might replace the word “Teacher” with the word “White” or “Carpenter.” All such laws are illegal since they prefer certain groups and are not applicable to all citizens of the state in violation of this amendment which had as its purpose to establish equal protection of the law for Afro-Americans.

Tenure of teachers and the ever-increasing costs associated with it must come to a screeching halt, but nobody has made any effort except Governor Malloy and this sparingly, and against the efforts of the unions to derail them. The courts must decide whether tenure is a legitimate child or a bastard. I believe the latter and so do many of our townspeople. The issue has been decided in Illinois where the Illinois Supreme Court said the following about his question, and I quote: “The function of a school is to provide the best education possible for its pupils. It is not its function to provide job security for its employees.” End of quote.

Thus the fulcrum on which the balance of much of the budget depends is not cutting here and there, mostly highly debatable and unpopular decisions, but to tackle the basic issue, namely shall the Board of Education or the union be in control of our schools and how are we going to rid ourselves of this menace both to the education of our children and our budget and with it finally be able to take some of the projects which have been on the shelf for the longest time. I am of the opinion that any budget that does not address these very basic issues which I have raised is an excuse for failure to act and a stay of execution for the real culprit

Oscar Berendsohn

34 Appleblossom Lane, Newtown                                   May 8, 2012