Hamden Journal

Budget supporters: Children deserve good schools

By Kenneth Hoffman

Supporters of the Board of Education’s budget proposal made their message clear at the recent public hearing:

Fund the requested budget; our children deserve it, they said.

Many of the people who spoke in favor of more cuts said they were of two minds, because they believe in the importance of a giving the town’s children a good education.

“Like a lot people concerned with the mill rate, I am conflicted tonight,” said resident Tony Papale.

He said his wife was “passionately in love with the school system,” however, he was concerned about potentially higher taxes in “one of the heaviest tax-burdened communities in the state.”

“One thing I’m concerned with when I pay taxes is that my children get good educations,” he said.

Kelly McCarthy, a member of the Hamden Alliance for Responsible Taxation (HART), said, “Education is one thing I am in favor of funding fully. All of us want less bureaucracy and more books,” she said.

Parents and educators pleaded with the Legislative Council to find a way to give more money to the schools.

“The students will have the most to lose,” Kathy Muolo said. “Please do not fail them.”

Ruth Johnson, a Parent-Teacher Association member and teacher’s aide, said, “I hope you can, please, find a way to fund the full budget.”

“In the business world, the dollar is the bottom line. In my world, our children are our bottom line,” she said.

Much of the controversy stemmed from a fear that if the Board of Education budget were cut too low, the Talented and Gifted (TAG) program funding would be cut.

Many students and community members stepped to the podium to air their support for the program, lauding it as integral to the education system.

One seventh-grader from a private school, who is preparing to enter Hamden High School, said, “I can see how it might be a good idea to equalize, but we don’t have all the same needs. So, in that way we can’t be equal.”

Others, concerned about rising taxes, were not supportive.

They thought that the TAG did not serve enough students to be a viable expenditure in a community with an already high tax burden.

Marianna D’Albis, a HART member, said only about 60 children were involved in TAG, and so it didn’t serve enough of the population to rate funding in such a tight budget.

“Asking for more money will never stop in this town,” she said. “The board of education should take the same as last year.”

She and other speakers suggested not increasing the school board budget at all in an attempt to avoid any tax increase.

Bill Burns, a motion picture producer from Hamden, said the school board budget should be the same as last year.

He accused the school board of improperly managing its money, and said that any savings from holding the budget flat should be put into a forensic audit of the board.

“It isn’t logical to give more money to a board that can’t manage its money,” he said. “They don’t know how to spend what they get.”

Not everyone saw such a dire situation, though.

Katherine Lazola, who moved to Hamden four years ago from New Jersey, said, “We look back at Jersey and feel lucky,” she said. “Taxes are real high there.”

Jennifer Marchand, a mother of two children in the Hamden school system, had a similar feeling.

“Though I would not want my taxes to be increased,” she said, “if they were, I would hope it would be for education.”

The Legislative Council now has the difficult task of deciding how to reconcile the opposing sides of the issue.

Copyright © 2007 Hamden Journal, reprinted with permission. Originally published on 25 April 2007.

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