To the Editor:

I had the opportunity to read your latest Editorial Ink Drops titled [4/24/15], and while it appears to include a rebuttal of sorts to my own letter from two days ago, I do acknowledge that I failed to properly qualify those I described as “Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing.”“The Budget and Our Quaint Political Wisdom”

That description was intended only for those officials and organizations in Newtown officially charged with knowing the pros and cons of the education budget but, when it comes time to educate the public, choose instead to present only the information that would lead to getting the budget passed. These are the people we are supposed to trust to be open and transparent. No budget is perfect, but you wouldn’t know that from the way it is being presented in public by officials, and it seems, by your own editorial.

The Newtown Bee is for the most part, a trusted source of information.  Yet unmentioned in your editorial, which I interpreted as encouraging readers to approve the budget, is any acknowledgement that the education budget has its flaws.

Instead, you point out the tax reductions and you describe the budget review process as “remarkably collaborative.”  You point to Dr Erardi’s own statement that he got a lot of good advice this year from town and school officials. You describe town officials as speaking this year in a spirit of consensus.

All warm and fuzzy, but it is exactly that collaboration, consensus and advice between a heavily party-dominated group of town and school officials which has for years denied the needs of education, the concerns of parents and as one example, the $2.6 million in requests made by teachers and principals in January needed to fund solutions to a multitude of problems in the district.

Funding and forward progress for education will continue to suffer in a town largely managed by a Republican Town Committee as they move Newtown further to the right with their agenda for tax relief and against a progressive and competitive education program.

Slowly and steadily the education budget and the superintendent’s authority is drifting toward town control. Even as we build a $50 million school, the one-sided “declining enrollment” talk track has put our teachers, district administration and concerned parents on the defensive.

I’m looking forward to the day when our new superintendent realizes that his well-intended, but misguided willingness to “collaborate” with these officials will leave his district with fewer and fewer options over time.  Until then, with editorials like yours, it seems the wolves in sheep’s clothing will have their way.

Kevin Fitzgerald

24 Old Farm Hill Road, Newtown             April 24, 2015