@ democracy and school funding at a town in NH

[rubytue]

I was listening to a story on NPR as I ran some errands today, and since I didn’t catch the end (or some of the details) I had to go find an article to find out how it ended

Short version, school board budget approval at a town meeting with 34 people in attendance. Guy proposes slashing budget so that partners with kids older than elementary school would have to pay out of pocket for their kids to be educated at public schools (town doesn’t have higher grades but pays tuition at neighboring public school districts, parents would be picking up the shortfall - this part was in the NPR story, but only implied in the link). Proposed budget passes, including the support of school board press (wife of said guy). Word gets out and town finds a way to overturn vote. (Thankfully, overwhelmingly!). 

www.nytimes.com/2022/07/10/us/croydon-free-state-politics.html

edit: since it’s the end of the month, if you are out of NYT reads, here is an early article from just after the slashing, before the figure out how to fix it www.vnews.com/Budget-cut-at-annual-Croydon-NH-school-meeting-45496794

[erbear]

I’m not surprised by this. A friend of mine moved to her mountain home in NH during the pandemic and the stories she tells about how schools operate are so crazy.

[shauni27]

this is local to me (funny seeing my local paper linked!) and it has people all in a tizzy.

[livinitup]

I read the article with curiosity and interest. When I got to the smug quote by the ring leader:

Mr. Underwood asked what for him appears to be a fundamental question — “Why is that guy paying for that guy’s kids to be educated?”

I got the same hollowed-out, chilled feeling that I got the first time I read about Flat Earthers declaring the earth was flat and NASA was a hoax and we’ve been lied to our whole lives.

I mean, do you really think this is some kind of “gotcha” question for why a community of 800 people pay for the education of the children in the community??

It is just such a basic, fundamental function of a democracy. Sure, it can be expensive and needs good oversight and governance. But it’s fundamental.