Can we afford our schools?
I’ve been thinking of this for weeks, ever since we squeaked through the last budget session and had to be grateful that we “only” had to cut $800,000 instead of $1.6 million from the school department budget. Listening to UML Sunrise this morning, I heard Bill Taupier, local businessman and political guru as well as a former school committee member and city manager, sounding critical of the school committee for accepting this compromise. Taupier stated that basically the city has “short-changed the schools for the last 12 years” by not meeting its funding obligations. He believes that if we lose our schools, we lose our city. I agree with his emphasis on the importance of our public schools and the ongoing lack of local funding, but as a taxpayer and resident of the city who watched the Manager’s budget presentation, I felt that the city did the best it could this year. After all, they need to clean up what seems to be years of irresponsible and inaccurate budgeting. Still, I wonder; was I taken in by what seemed to be a fair and honest approach on the part of city hall? Was I so grateful for the transparency that I was willing to cave in on what the schools needed? A fter the devasting cuts of 2003, when we got nothing for our pains, it felt good to at least achieve a compromise. I guess time will tell; but for now, the question remains, can we afford to fund our schools, or even more importantly, can we afford not to?