Please vote no on the Regional School Unit 2 school budget on June 8. The school committee created a budget that would mean massive increases in property taxes for all towns in the RSU 2 system, with no alternative plans considered. This smacks of arrogance on the part of the committee, because we are just emerging from a pandemic where many people lost jobs and costs of real estate and rent have increased tremendously.

Voting no is not a vote against children; it is simply a method taxpayers can use to force the committee to reconsider the school budget and make hard choices to keep costs down, as other towns have done in Maine. Dresden selectmen have already urged their residents to vote against the budget, and Richmond is pursuing leaving RSU 2, which would mean more costs would land on fewer households and taxes would increase for homeowners and renters alike.

We must face facts that the number of children in Maine and the nation is decreasing, and we need to restructure our school systems to acknowledge that trend. Throwing more money at educating fewer students isn’t sustainable, and children won’t thrive in school if their home life is affected by not having stable, affordable housing. The elderly people in our towns also don’t deserve massive property tax increases when many of them struggle to survive.

We all have to have realistic budgets in our lives, and school systems are no different. They have an obligation to the towns they serve.

 

Michelle Mason Webber

Farmingdale

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