Editor's Note

School budget cuts aren't going to be pretty
WINDHAM
3/5/2010

By Joshua Shea

School budget time is coming. In prosperous years, it's a predictable game of cat-and-mouse between school boards, town councils, students, parents and the property tax paying public. It's like a play in several acts and usually it works something like this...

Taxpayers: We don't want higher taxes!

Town Council: Don't raise taxes, school board!

School Board: But if we don't, you'll lose the school band and football!

Students and Parents: We need school band and football! We'll pay extra!

School Board: The parents and students want to raise taxes.

Town Council: OK, we'll raise taxes.

Taxpayers: OK, but we'd better win the state championship for what we're paying.

Then, school winds down for the year, everyone goes off to summer camp for zany adventures and it all starts again the following year. I've seen it in plenty of cities and towns I've covered. It's a lot like a late night talk show in that it's always slightly different but usually follows the format outlined above.

This year is going to be different. It's not Conan O'Brien replacing Jay Leno. It's more like Conan the Barbarian replacing Jay Leno. It's a whole new show.

The State of Maine will once again not be funding education to the levels agreed upon by voters several years ago. That's the nice thing about being a lawmaker -- you can suspend the laws when it gets too challenging to follow them.

Whether you're in RSU 14 or SAD 15, you're looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars less in funding this year. This would have happened last year, but the stimulus package helped plug, or rather, temporarily delay what's likely going to happen this year.

We're not talking about threats to under-fund the C-level extracurricular activities or cut the lunchtime staff from 14 to 13.5. We're talking about wholesale slashing that is going to have an effect on every student, teacher and administrator on a daily basis and ultimately will have an effect on the community as a whole.

Aside from the cranky misanthropes who are the kinds of people who turn off all the lights and watch television from their dark living rooms on Halloween, nobody wants to see the children suffer because of the economy. And aside from the bitter outcasts who limped through their school years as acne-ridden, self-loathing victims, nobody wants to see teachers suffer because of the economy either.

The cuts that we're going to see aren't going to be minor flesh wounds. They are going to be deep puncture wounds to major arteries. Unless Congress passes some other stimulus package in a hurry, this year is going to hurt. When the private sector was forced to cut way back last year, education was given a one-year pass. Well, the coach is about to turn back into a pumpkin.

I actually expect to see some minor tax increases. It would be good PR for the towns to follow the script they usually do. Say you can't raise taxes to make the property owners happy, then feel bad and agree to take it on the chin ''for the children.'' Of course, taking it on the chin will only be a sliver of what total cuts are made.

I wouldn't want to change places with principals or superintendents in our school districts right now. They are forced to make hard choices that could have lifetime rippling effects on our students' lives. There are some children who won't be exposed to that teacher, that course, or that one moment in time that inspires them and sets the direction of their lives. Unless test scores fall, it won't be quantifiable just how these cuts hurt the kids, and let's be honest, anybody over 25 who uses Facebook can tell you that school testing is about as accurate of a barometer of how people will turn out in real life as a Ouija board.

I would urge anybody who has time or resources to volunteer or donate to schools as things get real tight. It's going to be years until we're back to where we need to be and like a wartime effort, we need to pitch in for the common good. It's not about politics. It's not about ''what they're teaching our spoiled kids'' and it's not about how education has changed since you were a kid. It's about the kids who are there right now and hoping that they will be different and they will be the generation that finally has the tools to not mess the world up the way their parents and grandparents did.