District budget deserves support

To the editor

By:
   On April 19, the taxpayers of Hillsborough will be asked to approve our school budget. As in past years, this year’s budget is higher than the last.
   Costs are up, as is enrollment. But we have no choice – we all must vote. We all must pass the budget.
   Some of us might argue that the school district spends too much. In fact, the reverse is true.
   Over the past few years, we have spent too little. The good news is that we have tried, with some success, to get by on the cheap, spending thousands of dollars less per student than comparable districts.
   Now, the bad news. The new state law, S1701, mandates that districts can’t raise the budget more than the cost of living. So our lower budgets in the past have become the baseline for our current budget. The budget we are being asked to approve on Tuesday is only about 3 percent higher than last year’s.
   If the budget is defeated, it will go to the Township Committee where, most assuredly, that meager increase – and more – will be cut. Then this lower figure will become the baseline for next year’s budget and we will fall further behind.
   If this happens, you can be sure that teachers will be cut and class sizes will increase. You can be sure that the antiquated computers our kids can’t use because they are too old to run modern software will not be replaced.
   You can be sure that special programs like writing labs will not be maintained – a real problem now that the SAT requires a writing exercise.
   You can be sure that additional sports and extracurricular programs will be cancelled. And, most unfortunately, you can be sure that our kids will continue to get the message that our town just doesn’t care about a quality education.
   People say they can’t afford the tax increase. Some families really are hurting, but others who complain do so from $500,000-plus homes, so it is difficult to say how extensive this problem really is.
   Whatever you think about school taxes, the resolution is not with the Hillsborough School District, but with our legislators in Trenton and Washington.
   The alarming federal deficit means that the Feds are giving less to the states and therefore the states have less to give to local schools. As most of you have figured out by now, the President’s tax cuts have been more than offset by increased taxes at the local level.
   The result – aid to our schools is flat and we are forced to carry more of the burden.
   And while we can wish there was more state and federal aid, and while we can work to get more support in the future, the fact is that our kids are in school now and they need our support now. Let’s face it; the education of our children costs a lot of money.
   But is there anything more important? Defeating the budget because we are angry about taxes only hurts our kids and our community.
   I am not always pleased with the current state of affairs in our school district, but I am not going to let my child suffer because of it.
   I hope you won’t either.

Marc Rosenberg
DuBois Round