The Wallflowers Club

Last week, students at Newtown High School staged a protest to the new fees assessed for participation in most extra-curricular clubs and activities at the school. The fees were conceived and approved last June by the Board of Education as a means to make up part of the $400,000-plus it needed to trim from its budget as a result of the voters’ rejection of its original spending plans. At the time, charging students $40 to participate in clubs and extra-curricular activities sounded like a plausible way to raise money for the school board. Some parents were even encouraging it as an alternative to, say, closing the swimming pool or the outright elimination of programs that were not part of the core curriculum. Now the student protests have delayed the implementation of the fees, at least until next month.

Along with other savings approved by the school board, the so-called pay-to-play system for school activities (the school newspaper, yearbook, and charitable clubs excepted) was approved with little fanfare or comment. It also won the endorsement of the Board of Finance and the Legislative Council, which had to authorize a $300,000 special appropriation for the school system to be funded by the fees. (A special town meeting on October 23 will consider and act upon the appropriation.)  While the fees may have helped balance the school’s budget this year, they do not fall in a balanced way upon the students and families that have to pay them. All students will have the same obligation to pay; not all students will have the same ability to pay.

Admission to the best colleges is getting more competitive each year. Students know that college admissions panels are looking beyond grades for students who are both academically accomplished and well-rounded. Extra-curricular activities have tipped the balance for many a college application. By formally establishing an advantage for affluent students in the competition among all students to fulfill their potential through higher education, Newtown takes a step away from the democratic principle of equal opportunity for all and a step toward the plutocratic principle of special opportunity for those who have the money. That may be the guiding principle of our culture these days, but it should not be a principle employed by our democratically elected officials for the administration of our public institutions –– especially our public schools.

The voters of Newtown have every right to set the size of the budgets for town and school administrators. By rejecting two budgets last spring, the Newtown taxpayers made it clear that the annual rate of increase in school spending was too high. Unfortunately, in this case, the Board of Education chose to view its budget shortfall as a revenue problem, not as a spending problem. With not as much money in its pocket, the board chose not to spend less, but to look in the pockets of the students for a solution to its problem. And in so doing, the board is creating a new class of students with little or nothing in their pockets who must sit on the sidelines and watch others participate in the full range of opportunities to be found in our schools. We would call them the Wallflowers Club if it were not so expensive.