The Payoff for Public Education

Sometimes, in the midst of all the political turmoil and stress over budgets that we get into around this time of year, I find myself with an opportunity to step back and get a little insight into the caliber of kids who are about to graduate from high school. Each time, I am struck by what amazing kids they are, and how much they have already accomplished, even at this early stage in their lives. It happened again recently, when I attended the awards ceremony for the Morgan Babcock Scholarships.

Granted, the Morgan Babcock Scholarship recipients are the top five who emerged from a group of kids in the application, but I got the sense that the Trustees found themselves trying to separate cream from cream in trying to pick only five from a whole group of great kids. You don't really have to look very far to see evidence that this year's graduating class is full of amazing kids who are articulate, confident, responsible, motivated, and filled with a sense of community. Their various individual talents (as writers, athletes, artists, musicians, scientists, engineers) and communication skills are well developed. I have actually noticed that about every class I've seen graduate in the past few years; before that, I just wasn't paying attention.

Some of these kids' amazing-ness clearly comes from the their families, and from the community at large (coaches, scout leaders, their churches, organizations like the Grange, and of course, special people like Dave Kimpton and Sue Tully, who seem to be a part of every kid's life in this community), but a lot of it comes from their schooling. Most of the kids graduating next month grew up attending schools in the Groton Dunstable Regional School District. The accolades we often hear about the excellence of our school system are mostly about the performance of the kids in high school today. They are the beneficiaries of the investment that this community has made in public education over the past 12 years. Sending a group of young adults out into the world who are well on their way to becoming productive citizens who can help move this country forward is the payoff we get for that investment.

Unfortunately, cutbacks in state aid have made it harder for us to fund the level of services that was available when this year's graduating class was in elementary school. Class sizes have crept up in many areas and there are fewer classroom aides, so it's harder for teachers to give a kid who may be struggling to grasp a concept or master a skill the level of attention that kid needs to move on to the next level. Reductions in professional development have made it more difficult for teachers to improve their skills and stay on top of the latest changes in curriculum or recommendations on best teaching practices. Today's classrooms have fewer materials for teachers to work with. Our technology is not as up to date. Although there are scholarships for those who need it, the user fees we have today cause some parents to think twice before signing their kids up for band or sports. All the little cutbacks here and cutbacks there have gradually been chipping away at the effectiveness of our public schools. Now, we are talking about some significant cuts that could seriously set us back.

When MCAS scores came out this year, we saw stellar results in the GDRSD 10^th grade class, but not-so-stellar results in the lower grades. It may be a little soon to say whether the decline is a fluke or a trend, but the decline in performance in the lower grades should be a point of concern for all of us. We need to at least consider the possibility that the decline in MCAS performance could be at least partially attributed to the cuts we have made in school services over the past five years. The kids in elementary school and middle school today are not getting the same level of service that has contributed to the success of the Class of 2007, and graduating classes before them. Should we now give them even less?

The kids who will suffer the most if our schools go downhill are the kids whose parents don't have the means to send them to private school. Most of the kids in this community are depending on our public schools to give them the educational foundation they need to become productive citizens. We are constantly hearing stories about kids who came out of public schools and went on and do amazing things. Some of them even came from Dunstable. Universal access to good public education is one of the things that has made this country strong. We need to find a way to make sure that the Class of 2017 can get the same educational opportunities that were available to the Class of 2007.

There's no question that the impact of a failed municipal override will be immediate in its effect on all residents, and devastating to the town. For that reason, passing the municipal override is being given top priority by our town officials. Although the tax increase will likely place a hardship on some, the municipal override must be passed in order to serve the needs of this community as a whole.

Making changes to a school system is less immediate in its effect on a community. It's more like trying to turn an oil tanker at sea. After you've turned the wheel, you may travel miles before you can actually see that you have changed direction. If you get headed in the wrong direction, it will take miles to get it back on course. Just because the impact of the school override is not as immediate, does not mean it won't have devastating effects. We just won't see it until it's too late to turn back.

If the school override fails, some immediate action will be taken that will mostly be noticed by the kids in the schools, especially those kids who might have to move to a different elementary school because elementary teachers have been cut. Unfortunately, we won't really see the full impact of this override failure on the school community until we can measure how kids are doing a few years from now. By then, it will be a lot harder (and cost more) to turn things around. Kids who are struggling will need even more individual attention to catch up. We may need to take bigger steps to maintain the NEASC accreditation of our high school, which is due for review, starting next year.

Your decision on the school override should come down to the question of whether you believe that the impact of an override failure on the schools will be worse for the town than the hardship presented by the additional tax increase that is needed to support the school override (in addition to the municipal override).

For Dunstable taxpayers, the school override adds an estimated 54 cents to the 77 cent tax rate increase that is estimated for the municipal override - for a total tax rate increase of $1.31 per $1,000 of property value. To estimate the annual cost of supporting both overrides, you'll need to look up the total value of your property on the tax bill you just paid. Divide that number by $1,000 and multiply by $1.31. For the average home valued at $400,000, the cost of preserving both school and town services will be $524 a year, which (divided by 4) is actually $131 on your quarterly tax bill.

• If you can't afford the tax increase of both overrides, we hope you can at least support the municipal override by voting Yes on Question 1. The hardship that property tax increases puts on valued citizens is why we need to push for changes at the state level. We need to take the pressure off of our property taxes. (If the override passes, we should also look into the status of this initiative from the Governor, or consider something like the property tax cap for seniors submitted to the House by the town of Westford or the one submitted by the Town of Plymouth.)
• If you can afford the tax increase and feel, as we do, that it is worth paying the additional tax to give future graduating classes the same educational opportunities that we have provided in the past, please get down to the library between 12-8pm on May 21 and vote Yes on both override questions.

If the school override passes, it will pay off in the success of future graduates.