Here's Your Hat

You know what I think? I think anyone in this town that doesn’t want to have the best schools possible, should just pack their bags and move on down the line.
Quality schools are not a luxury, they are a necessity.
You can argue about what constitutes quality – facilities, range of academic offerings, effective teachers, but you can’t be against all three and still claim you’re for quality schools.
Come on admit it: you know who you are. You know that when it comes to schools, it’s the cheaper the better as far as you are concerned.
You’re the kind of person that waxes eloquent about the good old days: days of one room school houses and teachers who were allowed to ‘discipline’ students.
You’re the same people who, when the town was contemplating building new recreation fields about a decade ago, rose up on Town Meeting floor to talk about the good old days when you played with ‘cow flaps’ in the fields.
You’re the kind of person who thinks teachers are overpaid, under worked, and ineffective – and that’s on a good day.
You constantly complain about a wide variety of ‘other people’, who you say have a sense of entitlement: but what you are really complaining about are people you think are taking what belongs to you.
And that’s a big list, because, from what I can tell:
It’s your country.
It’s your town.
And they are all your tax dollars.
And if things don’t go as you think they should, you move out anyway (or threaten to do so).
So here’s your hat, what’s your hurry.
It’s all gotten very simple for you: you just want to live in a place where you will be left alone.
So who’s stopping you?
For all of your complaining, that house you bought twenty years ago is now worth four times what you paid for it.
So what are you waiting for – cash in your chips.
Just an hour to the north is the ‘Live Free or Die’ state: you better hurry if you want some of both (and they have plenty of cow flaps to play with, too).
No, I can’t tell you that the hundreds of millions that the town is planning to spend on schools over the next decade or so will guarantee a better quality of education.
But I can say that the lack of proper funding of schools over the last 25 years has really hurt this town.
At one point, not too long ago, we had one of the largest middle schools (in terms of enrollment) this side of the Mississippi. Faced with the prospect of sending my first son to that school, we bit the bullet and sent him to Sacred Heart in Kingston.
We struggled to pay for it, but the benefits were clear.
Now my youngest son is enrolled in the public schools and, if things do not improve, we fully intend to explore our options.
When my older son was at Sacred Heart, my taxes were no different than any other residents. I didn’t get a rebate – nor did I think I should. Like most town residents I was willing to do my part. And like most town residents, I knew that schools were an investment in community.
I am all in favor of doing whatever I can to foster a sense of community in this town –from paying reasonable taxes, to supporting community organizations, to being involved in local government.
I personally would favor a plan to recruit and retain the best teachers in the country for Plymouth.
I personally am offended that our existing teachers have to spend so much of their valuable time begging for donations of monies and materials.
I personally object to paying extra to have a bus take my child to school, and extra to have the opportunity to have a full-day kindergarten.
I think that there is no better investment for a town, than an investment in better schools.
If it has a reputation for good schools, good things happen to a town.
If a town has a reputation for overcrowded, deteriorating schools, than new people may move in for the cheap housing, but they don’t stay. Of if they stay, they resent having to pay for mediocre schools.
I fully recognize that the majority of the town’s home-owners are not in a position to simply move out. And to them I say – don’t be penny-wise, and school-foolish.
And to the others I say, be positive: soon you may be free to put your money where you mouth is – somewhere else where the gates are locked, the children all go to private school, and you get everything you think you are entitled to.
I believe though that community is not an entitlement: it is an obligation.
If the Job Lot approach to schools wins out again, do you think at least you could stop whining for a week or two?
If, on the other hand, town’s voters approve the plan to rebuild North and enlarge South High School, don’t take it to heart – take it on the road.