As someone who’s been involved in the Northampton schools since 2003 — as a volunteer in classrooms, on four override campaigns, on the NHS PTO, and on the Northampton Education Foundation board — education is one of the primary factors in how I vote. And for that reason, I will vote for Laurie Loisel in the preliminary election for the Ward 3 city council seat.
I’m voting for Laurie because she supports a school funding approach that will last beyond a year or two — that is just as concerned with the education of Northampton’s kids five and 10 years from now.
I believe that the city’s decade-long sustainability plan, which Laurie supports, will ensure consistent funding for our schools well into the future. The plan maintains stability funds, incorporates surpluses into them, uses those funds in part for capital spending for the schools and to increase the school budget, while also maintaining savings and our strong bond rating (which allows for more borrowing for capital projects).
When my kids started at Bridge Street School, the annual increases in school funding ranged from 11.19% in a rare good year to — .67% in a bad year, and they were almost all bad years.
Since 2014, annual increases have ranged from 2.96% to 6.27% and most have been over 3%. Is it enough money? Absolutely not. But the alternative approach advocated by many candidates in the city elections — scrapping this plan and putting as much money as possible in the school budget right now with no plan for the future — will torpedo sustainability. We will be right back where we were before 2014, with our schools’ (and our city’s) financial future in jeopardy.
Please join me in supporting Laurie Loisel on Sept. 16!
Megan Rubiner Zinn
Northampton