Comments to Board of Education – Budget Meeting – February. 26th
Michael Suntag, Chairperson Citizens Addressing Racial Equity (CARE)
I am speaking to you as Chairperson of Citizens Addressing Racial Equity (CARE). I am addressing the potential for decisions that will increase the inequities for our children and parents by the budget decisions you are about to make.
Your roles as Board members are to make every decision by starting with the needs of every child in the system. That must be your moral grounding and filter for every policy and budget decision you make. It must not be based on currying political favor, personal advancement, attending to the desires of the mayor, the town council or any specific constituency in the town. It must be about meeting the individual needs of every child. That is the definition of equity.
But here is how decision creates an inequitable system. The cuts of librarians, reading specialists, resources, etc., fall more heavily on those children and parents who cannot shoulder the reduction of the personnel and resources they need. Our families who are struggling to provide for their children—some who are low income, some who are working two or three jobs, single parent households, grandparents raising their children’s children—cannot offset the disadvantages that the cuts will foster.
Children who are lucky enough to have parents who can absorb the inequities because they have the money to do so, will be fine. Many of the others, disproportionally our children and families of color, cannot, and will be left behind.
Every stroke of your red pen through a budget line impacts the life outcomes of those children most in need, and who will never recover from it. It will continue a system of inequities that have already caused such discrimination, and will eventually impact our town and our way of life in Stratford. Please make your decisions carefully.
