| VOLUME XXX No. 20 | Narrowsburg, NY | May 13 - May 19, 2004 |
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Doing the right thing is not always an easy thing to do The conventional wisdom tells you that you have no choice but to vote for any school budget. Children need an education, education costs money, and in New York State, that money is raised by property taxes. Plain and simple, you vote yes. This conventional wisdom, however, can be turned on its head when you consider that the only way that you have to voice your dissatisfaction with an elected body, its policies and its budget is to vote in opposition. You want to send a message, you vote no. So what do you do when it comes to casting your vote for the local school budget? Do you turn the budget down because you think that it’s outrageous that school administrators now make over $100,000 dollars and expect raises above the annual income of the resident who pays the taxes? And that our local schools are top heavy with administrators? Do you vote yes and totally ignore your dissatisfaction with the disparaging reports of talented students being totally bored in classes and marginal students being passed along without motivational teaching? Do you vote no because there is no other way to send the message that if there is going to be change in the educational systems, it has to start at the local institution? Do you vote yes because you think that the local district cannot be held accountable for the dumbing of our nation’s children with excessive emphasis on television and video games? In the end, you’ll vote one way or the other and hopefully the budgets will pass. The contingency budget that will be used if the budget fails a second time, is not beneficial to students, education or change. Our responsibility to children, education and our community extends beyond passing the school budget. We have a responsibility to work for the overhaul of the overpriced mediocre educational system. It starts with our attention to the system. We need first to learn what the issues are. We need to become informed and we need to attend school board meetings and school functions. If we’re going to change anything, we ourselves have to participate. Conventional wisdom says that change is motivated by those who show up. See you at the polls. Also in this issue: |
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Dr. Punnybone  After Life |
Letters to the Editor
Greenway sounds good To the editor: Do you know a greenway—through grants—will help to keep the Route 97 clean and green? If you think there is a way the towns would be threatened, lose control of their area or compromise their authority, I cannot see how. Senator John Bonacic has suggested this greenway designation to allocate money into the area that we would not be eligible for without the greenway—just as the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) and the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway has done for the people of the towns. The Greenway will make millions of dollars available that would not have been there. We have not lost control of our land with the UDC and the State Scenic Byway, and we will not lose control with a greenway. Senator Bonacic, thank you for all your efforts to make Sullivan beautiful and fund money to do so. It is amazing how some people make an issue out of something good. John J. LiGreci, Supervisor Town of Lumberland Glen Spey, NY
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