The $100,000 (unasked) Question

School Supt. Andre Ravenelle took his budget to the City Council last night, and of course discussion centered on the $1 million decrease in the School Department's request and Mayor Dan Mylott's budget decision.

Of particular note in the Telegram story is this short paragraph near the end:

Mr. Mylott has said he supports the budget, but that there is no additional
money to give the schools.

We did the math on this a few weeks ago, and we're sort of mystified why no one else has picked up on it and asked about it. When Councilor Stephen DiNatale was asked about it last week, he said he hasn't seen the numbers this way, but wanted an answer. The Telegram doesn't give an indication if the issue came up last night, but we're as fired up about it as we were two weeks ago, so we're going at it again today.

To recap: The city is receiving an additional $2.4 million in Chapter 70 education aid from the state. At Mylott's $44 million budget, the school budget is increasing $2.3 million. That means the city is holding back on $100,000 it spent last year on education.

No additional money? No sir, Mr. Mayor. No previously budgeted money is more like it. Where did that money go? What is more important in the city than education? The only answer we'd even consider is more cops, and that's included in the budget.

So now Ravenelle is talking about no textbooks until high school. Seriously? Am I going to send my kid to an elementary school without textbooks? You have got to be kidding me.

Is Ravenelle playing the traditional gloom and doom card? Probably. No books and cutting teachers with four years' experience is right out of the budget disaster playbook. But in this case -- where the School Department has been talking about books shortages for months -- there might be more than the usual dollop of truth in the whole thing. We'll find out when the pink slips are distributed.

We've said this a few times in the last few weeks, and we'll say it again: Fitchburg's (and many communities') top priorities have to be education and public safety, 1 and 1A, in some order or another. The budget proposal seems to make some steps forward on safety. But it takes a $100,000 step back on education, forget making a step forward.

For some reason, the $100,000 question hasn't been asked, forget answered. Commenters here are more fired up about whether or not they can call someone an "idiot" rather than looking at a seriouis policy question. The media have kind of ignored it, going with straight meeting coverage for the most part. Councilors and School Committee members have either ignored it, are unaware, or not made it enough of an issue to warrant coverage.

I know all three of the above groups read this space. This seems like a major deal. Put it this way: My kid enters first grade in three years. If there aren't textbooks, there's a good chance we find a town and school system that at least has a math book in the classroom. I'm guessing we wouldn't be alone. Can we please release the hounds on this issue and get an answer?

The city can work as hard it wants on drawing new residents to shiny new developments, whether its downtown or off Rollstone or Franklin roads. But if those people come to Fitchburg and read about an unsafe downtown or schools without textbooks, they're going to leave.

Mylott created this situation with his budget, but the Council and the School Committee are co-conspiritors here by not holding his feet to the fire on this. And everyone else in town is also if we don't hold the elected officials accountable for this travesty.