MEET THE BAUMANN SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS
SCHOOLS
062003 Don't treat the majority of Katonah-Lewisboro voters like toddlers
To the Editor:
When I read remarks like Carol Durante's, co-president of the high school PTO: "... Make this community show you how intelligent they are, because this last vote didn't show any intelligence at all ..." I wonder where is the intelligence in her statement. How intelligent could be calling one's opponents unintelligent? Didn't Ms. Durante notice that more than one half of the voters disagreed with her point of view? What makes her think that only,those who would have voted for the, budget didn't show up to cast their votes?
When I hear that "The KatonahLewisboro Board of Education debated whether to put before voters the original 2003-04 budget without changes and test if supporters will come out in sufficient number to pass the budget on the second goaround or to attempt a good-faith effort to trim the budget," I wonder if I am the only one who realizes how arrogant this statement is. Not only the wishes of the majority (so far) are being ignored, but we, the taxpayers, are being treated like toddlers.
It's time for this community to wake up and realize we do not live in a vacuum. The economy is in shambles, unemployment at the highest level in decades, state and city budgets are being cut left and right - but not in Katonah-Lewisboro. What are we trying to teach our children? That it's OK for the city kids to feel the pinch but since our children have affluent parents they should be exempted from any inconveniences?
I also love the scare tactics that are being used - "the property value will go down if the budget doesn't pass," etc. Maybe the time has come to realize that money is not everything. Money will not fix something that has a fundamental flaw regardless whether it is our educational system, foreign policy or the household plumbing. What it does though is to push out and marginalize the generation which made this place so desirable to live in, and that's the generation of our parents and grandparents, who are by now retired.
I happen to be a product of a different system. Our classes were much larger. There were no electives. There was continuity in instruction. We didn't have buses picking us up in the morning and delivering us back in the afternoon; getting to school was our responsibility. There was a dress code that had to be followed with no exception. By today's standards it sounds almost oppressive. And yet, there were no drugs, no guns in schools, and if you look where we ended up, you will find us quite successful in academia, arts, science, business, even politics.
To assume even for a moment that more than one half of this district's voters, who take their obligations seriously enough to vote, are not worthy of listening to indicates not only an incredible arrogance but a lack of fundamental logic among school officials and PTO officers. That's simply dangerous.