Guest Column

Voting down budget costs dearly in long run

Bernard Prohaska's letter to the editor attacking the East Brunswick school budget as being "overbloated" ("Charge Residents a School Tax Based on Use," Sentinel, Letters to the Editor, May 4) shows his complete lack of understanding of the situation.

He wants us to contact the Township Council representatives and tell them we want a "significant reduction" in the school budget. Is Mr. Prohaska not aware that most of a school budget is mandated and out of the hands of the local school board? Laws, such as the federal No Child Left Behind, are unfunded rules and regulations that a local school board has to comply with at its own expense.

Where can the school board cut? Should the schools not be heated in the winter? Should the students have to use old, out-of-date books and teaching tools? How about firing half the teachers and just doubling the classroom size? Out with music, art, school plays, team sports? What a poor school environment that would be.

Mr. Prohaska's solution (besides gutting the budget) is for the parents of the students to be the ones to pay for the children's full education. He advocates a charge based on the usage of the school system. OK, Mr. Prohaska, let's take this to its logical (or illogical) conclusion.

Let's establish a usage charge for all government services. Do you use the senior citizen center, Mr. Prohaska? If not, you should not have to pay for it. What about the library, parks, sidewalks, roads? Maybe your neighbor throws out more garbage than you do? Shouldn't he be charged more? What about those pesky people who were flooded out by Hurricane Katrina? Why should your federal tax dollars go to help them?

Whether it is educating our children or helping less fortunate citizens down South, we have a moral and civic obligation to help.

We all have things we do not want our tax dollars to pay for. Can you imagine what would happen if we could vote on every expenditure? All governments, federal, state and local, would shut down tomorrow. Instead, we vote for legislators we trust to spend our tax dollars wisely. If we do not like how they spend the money, we can vote them out. It is ironic that the school budget was voted down but the incumbents were given another term. If we like what the school board members are doing, how can we vote against the budget they worked so hard to make?

Voting against a school budget is mean-spirited and narrow-minded. It injures our children - yes, Mr. Prohaska, although neither you nor I have children in the school system, they are still "our" children. Voting down the school budget, at most, saves us a few bucks in the short run but costs us infinitely more in the long run. The school board cannot make long-range plans and, most importantly, our children's education is degraded. But at least Mr. Prohaska can buy a few more lattes.

Sheldon Rossman is a resident of East Brunswick.