I’ve listened to many of the parent responses to local school board decisions. It seems like few people are happy with their OWN board’s decision but can point to a neighboring district’s ‘better’ plan (though a quick listen to residents in _that_ community reflect the same dissatisfaction!)
I get that remote learning is not optimal for most children. It’s not great for many adults who are used to a classroom experience, either. But this is where we are at this moment in time. Some families will choose the to cut and run, putting their kids and their money into private programs and expecting a cut in their tax bill accordingly. I understand that many parents need to go back to work and for them school is childcare as well as education. But don’t look for that tax cut. That’s not how community works.
You don’t get to carve out options in your contribution to the overall commitment to being part of a town. Just as you don’t get a reduction in your contribution toward the fire department because you bought an extinguisher, or to the police department because you aren’t a criminal. Part of the value of your home is its place in a safe town with good schools, and that has a cost.
You DO, however, get a say in how that tax money is spent. Every planning board meeting that approves a new development, every selectmen’s meeting that approves a contract, every budget committee or school board meeting or deliberative session or town meeting is your opportunity to impact how your tax contribution is being spent.
I am running for state representative because I am not happy about how Concord’s decisions effect our lives here in Hampstead and Kingston. The governor’s and legislature’s failures to set definitive and funded policies leave communities to fight it out among themselves, pitting neighbor against neighbor. If the governor set a statewide mask policy, it wouldn’t fall to 16 year old supermarket clerks to enforce store policy; if the state and federal government met their education funding commitments it wouldn’t fall to parents of kids with physical or developmental disabilities to fight for their child’s services. And if the state held businesses accountable for the environmental damage they created, we wouldn’t need activists to fight for compensation for the resulting illness or property damage.
These are the problems your legislators should be working on. Help me get to Concord to get to work.
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