To the editor
As the shock of the World Trading Center tragedy slowly wears off, those who weren’t directly affected are slowly realizing that life in this town hasn’t really changed a whole lot. This point was driven home quite drastically by Walter Roger’s rather feisty letter last week about the "Cliques" that continue to run Hillsborough in their usual ding-dong fashion even as the U.S. prepares for war.
The one point in Walter’s letter that I would like to elaborate on is his view about the Charter School issue because he nailed that one right on the head.
The Hillsborough school board claims that the introduction of a Charter School would result in a cut in school programs and a sudden rise in school taxes because they would have to fork over $2.5 million in tax revenue. On the surface it sounds ominous as I’m sure they intended it to be!
However, like Walter, I believe it’s not true and here’s my analysis of why: The school board claims we currently have about 6,400 students enrolled in the district and that it costs over $8,000 per student to educate them and this is why our school taxes are so high. OK, fair enough.
Now, if out of that 6,400 students a mere 400 students (about 2/5 of a standard school building compliment) were to transfer to the charter school (at a cost savings of over $8,000 per student transferred), then the total cost savings in expenses to the Hillsborough school system would not only be high enough to offset the $2.5 million in lost revenue but would even be high enough to give the residents a slight property tax cut.
It’s a win-win situation for everyone.
Why then is the school board so emotionally opposed to this? If there’s a flaw in my logic then there’s also a flaw in their financial justification for raising school taxes every year and we’ve got a problem. If there’s no flaw in my logic then once again there’s a flaw in their financial justification for refusing the charter school and again we’ve got a problem.
Obviously there’s something else going on here something they don’t want us to know about. Mr. Venanzi and Dr. Gulick owe the public (and Mike Detsis is particular) a revised explanation of what the problem really is and, quite frankly, I can’t wait to hear it.
Hillsborough

