Brookfield High School Students: 'Brookfield Needs to Invest'

Written By: Hannah Grossman, Kaia Gallop, Emily Carrizzo

Today’s children are tomorrow’s future, and one day all the students in small town schools will hold the responsibility of the nation in their hands. Investing in the future is so critical for a fruitful society.

Brookfield is a town with a potential to reach new heights with the determination of the students, their families, and teachers. The average household income rate is around $101,000, the education provided for the students should reflect this large amount of money.

Programs and teachers are being cut, the budget continuously gets voted down; yet the majority of the population drives around in $40,000 cars and lives in half a million dollar homes. If all of these parents and grandparents have enough money to buy expensive things, let alone live in Brookfield, why isn’t the education of the children as high a priority as their luxuries?

The amount of money the town spends is a direct correlation to the quality of the education received by the students. Greenwich, Connecticut, known for being one of the wealthiest towns in the state, is in the same DRG (District-Reference Group) as Brookfield with a median household income of $104,000. Greenwich is number fifteenth in the state academically, whereas Brookfield is number twenty-one. They also have a college readiness of 50.1 based off CAPT testing and Brookfield’s is only 44.3. Though the makeup of the towns are quite similar, the discrepancy in testing and readiness can be correlated to the amount of money invested per kid in Greenwich every year, which is $18,297. These statistics show that despite the money coming into the school, Greenwich still has more invested into the education of the students. According to the CT State Department of Education Bureau of Grants Management, the net current expenditure per pupil in Brookfield is $13,733, roughly $4500 less than Greenwich, which has over 1,000 more kids than Brookfield in the high school alone.

These statistics are not illustrated by Greenwich, there are several districts in the same DRG as Brookfield that also show than an increase in budget results in a higher outcome in test scores and college readiness. It would be worth it in the long run to vote yes to raise the budget, even if it means an increase in taxes. After all, a quality education means a better future for not only this town, but for America.