A few comments on the discussion of the Westport Central School budget

Not content to attack the school budget itself, several opponents of the expected school levy have stooped to attacking individual Westport Central School students and their parents via the anonymous instrument of the Speakout column of the Press Republican. Shame on the editors of the Press Republican for publishing such a thing. Have you no competent editors there?

Anonymous attacks are socially corrosive enough. In a small community, one looks at such a thing and immediately suspects people of being the authors without any way of checking. Don't do this, people!

Meanwhile, in the Valley News, Colin Wells calls for civility in email exchanges about the budget. I have posted a comment in the comment section there:

A couple of key issues
April 08, 2010 | 05:46 AM

No one goes to school board meetings for fun, and we need to recognize the time and effort that are being put in by people we disagree with.

Two key issues underlying the discussion are: (1) the definition of "taxpayer," a word that has often served as a euphemism for "property owner," when in fact New York State taxpayers pick up a substantial portion of the tab for education; and (2) the authentic financial anxiety of the wealthiest 10% of residents and property owners (who also tend to be the oldest Westporters). The volatility in the stock market can reasonably be expected to have diminished the wealth of the wealthiest 10% by as much as 40%. Their feelings of financial anxiety are real and need to somehow be addressed by the community without costuming them as the poor. 

New York State has frozen at least some of the figures used to calculate the wealth of our community in determining what the state contributes to our school budget. In the case of the much-discussed NYS "Foundation Aid" which gives the district a specific amount per pupil, they have frozen the wealth figures at the 2006-2007 school year. The stock market crashed in July of 2007.

With the arrival of Fiberoptic Internet to Westport through the efforts of our phone company, Chazy-Westport, I think the prospects of the Westport economy bouncing back faster than New York State as a whole are very good, since it can now reasonably attract suburban telecommuters (like myself) as home buyers. But for that to work, we need to keep our infrastructure intact, and that includes the Westport Central School District.

Kathryn Cramer