Letter to The Editor: Our Town. Our Schools. Our Values.

By demanding a cut of $225,000 in our school spending, and not knowing or caring where the cuts will fall, the Redding Board of Finance has acted in a destructive and arbitrary fashion.  For the last two years, after careful line by line deliberation, the Board of Education has put forward budgets that take into account declining enrollment while maintaining the high quality schools that have been a hallmark of our town.  And for the last two years the Board of Finance has rejected those budgets out of hand.  By design, there is tension between the two boards, but never before has the Board of Finance unilaterally decided school budgets.  In years past when the Board of Finance considered a lower school budget, they would ask about the impact of potential cuts, and they would hear, line by line, what the additional cuts would mean: i.e. this teacher loses her job, this reading specialist loses his job, this program is no longer funded, etc.  But no longer.  The Board of Finance’s new perspective is that they dictate the number without any care as to the effect of the cuts.  One may ask why the Board of Education and the administration even bother to create a budget in the first place.  Under this current regime, the number comes first and the budget is an afterthought.  And that’s a loss for our town.  Indeed, this Board of Finance has for the first time in memory continually failed to work with our Board of Education and school administration. 

The argument given by the Board of Finance is that we are spending too much on our schools, and only they can stop us from our profligate ways.  However, if you ask them when we started spending too much, you won’t get a straight answer.  Indeed, when their children were in our schools, spending wasn’t too high.  The truth is we are not spending too much—Redding’s excellent schools reflect our values.  Year after year and for generations, we have chosen to pay for excellent schools.  Clearly, every dollar spent on our schools was voted for by a majority of our neighbors turning out at the polls.  But according to this Board of Finance, we have been making a terrible mistake, and so, instead of reflecting our values, they have decided to substitute their judgement for ours.

So what is their argument?

They primarily rely on the premise that with declining enrollment, we should be spending less.  And while at first blush that may sound right, in reality, as the Board of Education has clearly articulated, it’s not that easy.  Consider for a moment a school system with ten grades and with ten students in each of those grades.  For ten years, enrollment is flat.  However, just keeping up with an inflation rate of two percent would result in a budget 20% higher at the end of ten years.  Suppose, then, over the next ten years enrollment drops one percent a year.  Now we have nine students in every grade along with the same number of teachers, but the budget (because of the power of compound interest) is now 46% higher than it was twenty years earlier, and that’s with ten percent fewer students.  The point is that teachers, administrators, and everyone else who works at our schools rightly expect some small increase in pay over time, and, over time, the buildings only become more expensive to maintain.  Regardless of the number of children in attendance, we have to pay for the roof, heating oil, broken asphalt, and maybe even new books and desks every once in a while.  Put differently, cost per pupil does not capture the true, fixed costs of running a school system.

The Board of Finance also points to our neighbors in Easton.  They pay less per pupil, and we should pay what they pay.  But the Board’s numbers don’t consider the fact that Easton recently built a new school, which they pay for in another area of their budget; whereas the maintenance for our older schools is in our school budget.  In any case, the comparison misses the point because with our declining enrollment, we are not comparing apples to apples.  Again, in the example I gave above, assuming we and Easton began with a cost to run the schools of $1,000,000.  At the end of 20 years, with two percent inflation and flat enrollment the cost-per-pupil would be $14,600.  However, with ten percent fewer students the cost-per-pupil would be $16,222.  But the cost to run the schools would be the same!

Obviously my example is a simplification.  The truth is that the Board of Education has already made painful cuts, which have resulted in larger classes, increased workloads for specialists and paraprofessionals, and the loss of beloved teachers.  Remember, too, that enrollment is cyclical.  While the board may point to a line that angles downward, the truth is that if we maintain our schools, people will continue to move to Redding and enrollment will rise again.  Indeed, in September there will be an entire classroom of Kindergarten students who were not expected.

Historically, Redding has always valued education and extra programs including music, tutoring, and Project Adventure.  That is who we are.  But if we need a metric, why not consider the simplest measurement: what we actually pay each year in taxes to live in a town with District Reference Group A (DRG) schools.  For those unfamiliar, DRG is a state designation for school districts that measures socioeconomic status and need.  Consider the following table.

DRG A Districts

Median Home Value*

15-'16 Mill Rate

Median Tax

70% Valuation

/Estimated Bill

Redding

533,500

0.02891

15,423

$10,796

Ridgefield

606,400

0.02601

15,772

$11,041

Easton

588,900

0.03038

17,891

$12,524

Westport

1,088,900

0.01809

19,698

$13,789

Wilton

755,600

0.0268302

20,273

$14,191

Darien

1,390,700

0.01535

21,347

$14,943

New Canaan

1,359,000

0.015985

21,724

$15,207

Weston

799,700

0.02867

22,927

$16,049

*provided by Zillow

Considering median home values, mill rates, and median tax bills, Redding is a bargain.  For a town with DRG A schools, we pay LESS than any other DRG A district.  In other words, to live in any other DRG A town, you would have to pay or borrow more for your home, and you would pay more in taxes.  Young families move to Redding for our schools.  If we continue these nearsighted cuts, those same families will go elsewhere, and your home will instantly be worth a lot less.

However, all of these arguments about per-pupil costs and relative tax expenditures miss the most important point.  Regardless of what any other town collects in taxes and regardless of what any other town spends on education, we in Redding decide what is most important to us.  The Board of Finance says that we are living beyond are means, but they can only make that argument in comparison to other towns.  For generations, we have known what we can afford.  We set our own standards.  We define what we want for our town, our children, and our schools because we know who we are and what is best for us. 

Each year we go to the polls to ratify our budgets.  And any year in which a one, two, or three percent budget is presented, it passes.  Likewise, a zero percent budget would certainly pass.  But for two years now, the Board of Finance has recklessly refused to put a zero percent budget to us for a vote.  Every member of the Board of Finance knows that those budgets would have passed, but instead they have put forward their own numbers, which are not based on anything having to do with our schools or our values.

So what should you do if you prefer that these cuts not be made.  Unfortunately, the Board of Finance has said on numerous occasions that they would take a no vote to only mean that the voters want a lower budget.  So whether you vote yes or no, please tell these board members that you do not support these cuts in our school budgets.  You can get their contact information by calling Town Hall at 203-938-2002 .  Personally, I am voting for the Capital Expenditures for our schools.  However, I believe that the School Budget is too low, and thus I am voting against it.  

R
Submitted by Redding, CT

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