Town Meeting Day

Tuesday was Town Meeting Day in many towns across Vermont, and in my town of Grafton, a hot button issue was education spending, which I'm sure was being discussed across the state. The voters are looking for any way to lower their taxes, and I completely see their point, but where some wanted to start was with the school budget. There was a healthy discussion on the costs of education and the declining enrollment, and it centered around the fact that taxes keep rising. There are serious issues at stake here, but the place to start cutting back should not be in education.

One gentleman said that he was willing to see the education in the school drop from "exceptional to good" if it meant that taxes would be lowered. The fact that some people are comfortable with decreasing the quality and standards was a shock. It was good that this gentleman saw the connection that the quality of education was going to decrease if you slashed its funding, but this is not at all where we should be heading when thinking about education.

Another woman made the argument that larger class sizes would lead to better education. This is just proof of what people will say and believe when they are completely fed up with rising taxes.

One gentleman even argued for the so-called Doomsday Budget, which was a completely slashed budget down to the bone, eliminating almost everything, including a literacy coach, and lumping up to three grades together. It is scary when people start to support these type of cuts to education. They are clearly thinking of the present and not at all about the future.

What many of the people who made these proposals need to do is come in to the schools and classrooms and see what is happening on that level on a daily basis. It is easy to talk about these cuts, but it is quite different when you see the role that smaller class sizes play in the quality of education or the essential role that technology needs to continue playing with our students. Supporting education is supporting our students and communities. It is making sure we prepare our students for a world that they will be entering, and that needs technology. We can't hurt the future of our students and communities because our taxes are high. Education needs to be the last place where cuts are made, and then to aspects of the budget not so vitally important to our student's futures like literacy and technology. If voters would come in and see what is happening in our schools, I am sure they would less willing to see these cuts as potential solutions and would fully support their schools and students.