Archive: Opinions

This week's school board meeting was pretty intense.  Do we want to pay a whole lot more to be the best?  Or do we want to accept less than the best because we can't afford it?  Which one is the rock?  Which is the hard place?

Hidden in the gloom was Superintendent Grimm's statement that the community will have to band together to work its way through these issues.  I am hoping that's what will happen, and that representatives from every point of view will speak up.  Last year the people who were afraid of losing their homes if taxes went up were publicly quiet, and there seemed to be a lot of 'politically correct' pressure to keep the schools as they are no matter what the cost.

The school board didn't have the luxury of being politically correct, and I think they did a good job of working with what they were dealt to deal with a truly awful situation.  According to what we've been hearing this year is much worse than last in terms of the gap between projected revenue and spending.

Last year I heard Dr. Grimm talking about finding new, more economical ways to deliver high quality education, essentially doing better than our best with what we have.  This year I'm hearing that we've hit that wall and it's now becoming a matter of seriously higher taxes versus maintaining that quality.

I am as proud of our school district, and believe that education should be our top priority.  While I am not a fan of unions in general, I do think that teachers are unfairly becoming the scapegoats in the budget crisis nation-wide.  The last thing I want is to see anyone losing their jobs, especially teachers, and especially the high quality of teacher that Lansing attracts.

I don't think there will be a good solution.  Dr. Grimm was right when he said that nobody is going to like whatever the school board decides to do.  And I have no idea what the best compromise between that rock and that hard place is.  Kids shouldn't have to get less than the best education, and teaching is one of the most noble things a person can decided to do.  And homeowners should be able to stay in their homes and communities that they love (in part because of the excellent school system) and not be over-taxed.

I hope the people who can't afford the taxes will publically weigh in thir time around, because the alternative is just as unacceptable.  We live in the highest taxed state in the nation.  Performance of programs including many New York school systems (or the nation as a whole, for that matter) doesn't measure up to other places dollar for dollar.  Those are legitimate concerns, and I also don't want to see my neighbors losing their homes.  Last year David Dubin spoke eloquently for that concern, but he was pretty much a lone voice, at least in public.  Speaking out against high taxes should not be equated with being against schools and teachers.  It is a real concern for real people, just as school cuts affect real people.

The bottom line is that if people of all points of view do not weigh in equally, the community is not banding together to find a solution.  Even if nobody is going to like whatever the result is, it's going to be a much lousier result if the whole community doesn't participate in developing it.  It still stinks, but it stinks a lot less if everyone feels as comfortable as possible about participating in whatever the stinky solution turns out to be.

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