Regarding school funding

JOHN LUNN
Regarding school funding

An open letter to Rep. Steve Smith, chair of the Sullivan County legislative delegation:

I respectfully request that you add NH state education funding to your Aug. 29 meeting agenda.

This spring the NH legislature budgeted approx $130 million for school funding relief across the state. You also included an independent study and return of the stabilization funding. The governor’s proposed budget cut that in half and eliminated the study funds. In a letter to me you said that Governor Sununu’s increase is “pretty large.” Such a generalization glosses over the desperate reality we face.

We need more than pretty large. We need sufficient to survive. This catastrophic crisis has been kicking us for a generation — that is twice the 5 terms you have represented Charlestown — and every year we end up with no solutions, just talk. Meanwhile our children’s education suffers, our homes are impossible to sell, our taxes have gone through the roof and our property owners are faced with impossible choices of fixing crumbling buildings and roads or affording much needed teachers.

Can you honestly say that Charlestown will get anywhere near what it needs from the governor’s budget allocation, let alone start recovering from the last 25 years of decline? Newport is facing a $5 per 1,000 increase in school tax. We have a 49% reduced/free meals for underprivileged kids, which means poverty is rampant, making the school tax that much harder to pay. Can you tell me Charlestown is doing much better?

This is not a political issue. It is one of survival for your town and mine. Rather than looking back at who did what when and who gets the blame – and there is plenty to go around — look at what is on the table TODAY and ask yourself which budget will best serve your constituents NOW.

NH education funding reform is the lynch pin to our economic survival. Now, right now, is the hour to move that forward. Sullivan County can’t afford to wait any longer.

This is a conversation the delegation must have, and soon. Please put education funding on your Aug. 29 meeting agenda so we can hear what each of you will do to repair this county’s foundering schools and devastating tax rate.

John Lunn

Newport