By James Lomuscio
WestportNow Special Correspondent
Usually it’s Westport’s Board of Finance that trims proposed school budgets, not the Representative Town Meeting (RTM). In fact, historically the RTM has restored some of the cuts to Board of Education budgets when they are finalized.
But Tuesday night at 7:30, Richard A. Lowenstein plans to ask the RTM to break with tradition and start wielding its own ax. The District 5 representative wants to trim $300,000 from the school board’s proposed $79.5 million 2005-2006 budget. It’s the same $300,000 that the Board of Finance restored April 13 after rethinking its $600,000 cut in March.
Educators say Lowenstein’s request will severely hurt programs, education and ultimately the town’s quality of life. Lowenstein says his proposed cut is minimal and that the RTM has to lake the lead somewhere in containing ever-escalating spending that puts a strain on taxpayers.
“This is going to be a donnybrook,” said Lowenstein, noting that Schools Superintendent Elliot Landon has been galvanizing teacher and parent opposition. “What I’m going to say is not going to be that long, but the responses to it will be. I just hope the reaction is civilized.”
He pointed out that $600,000 represents only a .0075 percent reduction in the proposed school budget, the equivalent of cutting only $300 from an annual salary of $40,000 or $938 from a $125,000 yearly income.
“I cannot accept the assumption that the quality of education is dependent on what to many people is nothing more than a rounding error on a $79 million budget,” he said.
So far, Lowenstein says he has gotten a mixed reaction from the RTM members he has spoken to about the proposed cut.
(Editor’s note: The Moderator of the RTM, Gordon Joseloff, is also editor/publisher of WestportNow.com.)
That’s a 0.75 percent reduction, not 0.0075 percent. Hope that $600,000 isn’t being cut from the remedial math program.
If there’s overspending in our education budget, why not identify the specific position or program that’s superfluous? That way the people of the town (and not Dr. Landon) will be able to decide what, if anything, to cut. I think Mr. Lowenstein is on to something; the administration comes off as disingenuous sometimes when it comes to numbers. But when anyone threatens a general cut, Landon talks about axing high-profile programs that are sure to get parents and teachers out to fight. This game wastes time and energy would be better spent taking a closer look at streamlining the financial aspect of running a top-quality school system.
I think Dick Lowenstein is a courageous person to speak the truth about how Westport goes about funding programs and pitting one group against another to avoid budget cuts. After some of the vicious back-biting comments on WestportNow recently, I too hope that there will be a CIVIL discussion tomorrow night. The RTM can really take the lead in showing Westport how discussions about difficult issues (like the school budget, the growth of teardowns, etc.) can be handled. I hope they will.
And I was a math major, and so, yes, it is a 3/4s of 1% reduction, but it’s fine if that isn’t one of Dick Lowenstein’s many talents. 🙂
Re: R.C.‘s comments – the problem is that RTM only has authority over one overall number. We can suggest areas of concern, but nothing prevents opponents of even modest cuts from promoting worst-case scenarios.
While I, for the most part, support the budget, I personally am concerned about the ratio of staff growth to enrollment growth over the past few years (we’re adding 1 staffer for every three to four new students).
I can talk until I’m blue in the face, proposing even a modest, symbolic cut (like the $100,000 that I proposed in the RTM Ed Committee meeting) and that doesn’t mean that if the budget is cut by $100,000, anything will be done to address the issue of staff-growth.
Remember tomorrow night, when protests of “cuts” are made, that when all is said and done, Westport will still be spending in the neighborhood of 5% more on education than in the current year.