Report of Kid Haters in Bedford

Tonight at 7:00 PM in the theater of Bedford High School, Bedford residents get the chance to ask questions about and make comments on the proposed $64 million proposed school budget when the School Board hosts its mandatory and annual school deliberative session.

Truth be told, is there reason to believe the session will result in any significant change to the additional 79-cent per $1000 that we’ll pay in taxes if the proposed budget goes as is to the voters on the March ballot? If past history is an indicator, just plan to open your wallet wider. The last time that we saw a big crowd at a deliberative session was when  the teacher pay raise battle was at full tilt, and the normally pathetic public attendance was gigantically boosted by hundreds of school district employees and their families and by crowds of high school students who were coincidentally receiving their community credits for simply showing up and filling seats. Oh yeah, and cheering a lot.

Now let me say this . . . I genuinely like our school administrators and our school board members. They’re all good people. School administrators have a responsibility to always seek what they believe will benefit students. And our school board members donate a  huge amount of time and effort to support education and to give our kids a good start in life. And certainly we are blessed with school staff members who work hard and give their daily best to Bedford students. But in the zeal of all above, I do believe that they forget that everyone in Bedford does not have limitless finances.

Of no dispute is that we all have a civic responsibility to pay for education. Where there is dispute, however, is for what we pay. Is it our responsibility to pay for a public education that is offering more and more of the amenities of a private education? In fact, when compared to affordable religious affiliated private schools, there are remarkably fewer amenities by a long shot in those schools, and parents pay for just about all extras. Do we have an obligation to compete with school systems located in towns predominated by homes with multimillion dollar price tags rather than one like Bedford with a relatively small number of  “ plain ole” million-dollar McMansions? Is our goal to be the Beverly Hills of the East?

Throw bricks at me, but we’ve created a monster. As a whole, we have not asked enough questions. We have not shown up to be heard, and we have not said that it’s time to separate what is truly essential for an excellent education, and what bells and whistles should not be the burden of the town’s taxpayers. I have kids. I get it that parents want the best for their kids. Mine are grown now, but I did too. I still care deeply about what kind of education that other people’s kids get. But, I do know that it’s not my responsibility to pay for every little thing that makes life more fun and more fascinating for public school students. Sure, it’s wonderful to enrich kids beyond simply giving them basic education. But where does making learning wonderful for our kids by taking advantage of educational enhancements end and then morph into lots of programs, activities, events, and amenities that offer more enjoyment and amusement but don’t make our kids anymore intelligent than those in public school systems that don’t or won’t provide them on the taxpayer’s dime?

When you look at a school budget and its line items, it’s hard to evaluate the total cost of all of these things because they’re spread out over dozens of line items. Do you know the true and total cost of all sports activities for example? Do you know the true costs of all various activities when all related costs are factored into totals? Do you have any clue as to every single cost of things like AP and IB, or to the total of how many students (NOT how many courses taken) have participated? When that number of students is compared to the number of the total high school population in each year, do you think that the effort merits the big financial investment? Do you think that we should pay to plow parking lots for students’ vehicles when we’re already spending a lot on non-mandatory school buses for high school students? Yeah, some students pay into a fee system that needs a lot of improvement and a lot more muscle, but that doesn’t cover the expenses. And don’t forget, there really are schools that prohibit student parking. Imagine!

Have you heard yet a single dollar amount attributed to the cost of implementing the highly controversial Common Core in the Bedford schools? Do you even know what Common Core is? There will always be book costs and other repeat expenses, but can anyone answer the cost of what Common Core will cost when it will be in every single grade in the Bedford schools? Have you asked why Bedford is forging ahead with it with very little explanation to parents and to taxpayers and with lots of questions unable to be answered when thousands of school systems are holding back on implementation, including here in New Hampshire? Right now, the NH Legislature is considering 5 bills dealing with Common Core, one of which would terminate Common Core in NH schools. Are you concerned about the time and money wasted in Bedford if that legislation passes?

I know for a fact that there are many, many people in Bedford, including parents of kids in the Bedford schools, who are afraid to speak up because they know that others will attempt to embarrass them, or they will be demonized as being anti-public education or anti-kids. Remember a couple of years ago when an elderly Bedford resident wrote a heartfelt letter to the editor in which he said that he was scared, that he and his wife were living on Social Security, and that after years and years of living in Bedford, they didn’t know how much longer they could stay here due to increasing taxes? And what happened a week later? One of the self-appointed “elite” citizen cheerleaders wrote a responding letter to the editor in which she said that any resident who couldn’t afford to live here should just move the hell out. Nice, huh?

To that I say that there are few parents in Bedford who themselves pay enough real estate taxes to totally cover the cost of educating their own kids in the Bedford school system, along with contributing to the cost of educating other people’s kids in Bedford schools, and the portion of their taxes that goes to running the whole town. Think about it. The average cost per student is about $11,000 (different costs for different grade levels), How many homeowners with let’s say two kids in school pay let’s say a $25,000 real estate tax on their homes? Hmm . . . seems like “Ms.Elite” better be careful what she wishes for, and should also pray for a booming real estate market surge for modestly-priced houses in town for buyers who don’t care how high Bedford taxes go. “Ms. Elite” may hate a lot of us, but the sad truth is that she probably needs us to help finance her lofty goals and wants. Right now, I personally know 6 couples who are currently leaving Bedford to move to communities with lower tax rates. Do they hate kids or oppose public education? Nope. They’d just like to have enough money to do silly things like eat, have heat, and pay for their prescriptions without worrying that they’ll be totally broke.

I also know for a fact that there are Bedford teachers who point to unnecessary and expensive spending in the Bedford schools, but they won’t publically say so. Sure, supposedly everyone can comment without fear of retribution. But, we all know that life isn’t really like that. There’s always a price for saying what others will not. And aside from that, no teacher can afford to be the pariah in his or her school.

Yes, there are school costs that are going up, we all recognize that. But are there non-essential costs? Yes. Are there nice and generous things for the kids that could be eliminated without adversely affecting their education? Yes. Do we absolutely need to this year spend another $1 million for school parking lot work to “improve pedestrian and traffic flow”? There’s no prediction of mortality if such is postponed for awhile. Do we really need the addition in teacher salaries for an IB course in theater and other IB courses? A small group of parents will howl that we do. Will our elementary school students be dumbed down this year without Apple TVs and ceiling mounted projectors? I suspect not. Will our high school students suffer irreversible educational and life losses without a Model United Nations Program or the addition of another two sports now in the proposed budget? I’m going to say no. There’s currently a plan to equip high school students with their own individual personal computer devices. Give me a break!!!

For those who think that I’m nickel and diming it with some of these examples, I’ll say this . . . Because we have not been paying enough attention to things, all of the nickels and dimes have added up to a budget that is over $64 million. And to finance it, we’ve had to give up a whole lot of things on the significantly smaller town side of the budget that would have benefited all of us. And, we’ve seen our taxes double.

People . . . it’s time to start talking. It’s time to start asking questions. It’s time to start going to meetings. It’s time to protect our homes and our wallets. It’s time to get real and to stick a pin in the Bedford bubble.

And don’t just decide to go to the polls and vote against the school budget, and let the default budget take effect. The default budget isn’t much lower, in fact, a couple of years back, it was actually larger. While voting against the budget gets notice, it won’t do anything to change the mindsets of those who gladly spend your money to suit their personal ambitions and goals.

This humble blogger hopes that there are still enough people left in Bedford who recognize that Bedford has gone out of control. It’s time for such people to pack the meeting rooms, and to stay all night at every one of them if anything is going to change.

If it’s safer to keep quiet, or easier to not bother, we might reach a time when you’ll instead need the time to just start packing to move to a less expensive and less precious little bubble. That’s what some of the elitists would like you to do.

PLEASE NOTE: Anyone wanting to change an amount in a budget line item or warrant must present a written request to the School District Moderator prior to speaking. The proposed budget and warrants can be viewed on the school district website at www.sau25.net, and will also be available at the meeting.