Transportation Costs

Vs Student Costs

To the Editor:

The editorial in The Bee [“The Currency of Trust,” Editorial Ink Drops, 5/18/12] places the continued budget rejection on a lack of trust in our elected officials. According to The Bee, the reason for that lack of trust is due to the “public suspicions over the fairness of its abandonment of the popular owner-operator bus transportation system.” Given my continued support for more money in our classrooms, I don’t agree. And I have yet to meet anyone who voted No due to any lack of trust because of the owner-operator issue. Newtown is 49th in the state on what we pay for student transportation under the current owner-operator system. Yet Newtown is 149th in the state on what we spend on our students. Why the dichotomy?

Out of 165 school districts in the state, we rank 149th in our spending on a per student basis. Our cost per pupil is below the state average. Our teachers are paid below the state average salary. Our superintendent is paid the state average. Our spending per student is the lowest in our District Regional Group. Yet we rank in the top third in the state in what we currently spend on student transportation; out of the 165 school districts, we rank 49th in student transportation costs! I like the owner-operator system, but why must it cost so much? Why, in the minds of our politicians, do the owner-operators occupy should a privileged place, while our students do not?

There is something deeply wrong when politicians think it’s good to be 49th in transportation cost and 149th in spending on our students.

Why do our politicians allow these owner-operators to ignore the market forces of supply and demand to which every other business must abide, while taking money out the classroom? If our elected leaders are going to allow one business to ignore supply and demand, shouldn’t these same politicians allow other businesses to ignore these same market forces? Shouldn’t the restaurants be allowed to charge more than the going rate on food and service? How about the dry cleaners or the banks? They should have the privilege of charging more for their services. All these businesses employ good neighbors and responsible citizens, too.

They can’t because if a business charges more than the going rate, they will be driven our of business for lack of customers. This is the way America does business. We expect fair prices driven by a competitive marketplace. That is American capitalism at work and that is the market place in which we all work.

The reason I voted No is due to a lack of trust. In that, The Bee is correct. But it’s not due to the replacement of the owner-operators or the Board of Education which replaced them. It’s because of my lack of trust in the politicians who keep reducing school spending. There is something deeply wrong when politicians think it okay to be 49th in transportation cost and 149th in spending on our students.

Charles Hepp

4 Winter Ridge Road, Sandy Hook                                 May 22, 2012