I am writing this letter in response to Angelo Lynn’s editorial: “Let small schools prove themselves” (Oct. 24, 2019). The thrust of this editorial is clear: the Addison Northwest School District Board has carried out its charge in an undemocratic and reckless fashion. There are two points I’d like to make.
The first, the members of the board have made immense sacrifices in time and energy for the sake of our children’s education — a remarkably thankless task. Secondly, the school board is trying to cope with a mess brought about by the politics of austerity. Who is to blame for that? Not the school board, but we the voters.
Big pharma and our for-profit health care system drives medical costs — and therefore insurance rates — sky high. A simple fix is to treat health care like a right and not a means of profiting off the ill-health that we all experience over our lifetimes. Government regulation of health care costs would have saved our schools. But no, the voters — through our representatives at the state and federal levels — give tax breaks to real estate speculators, insurance CEOs, and the fossil fuel industry while leaving Vergennes, Ferrisburgh and Addison to squabble over crumbs.
Our school board has nothing to do with this; the issue is so much larger. Austerity destroys communities: we turn our anger on our neighbors who volunteer to serve us while letting the Betsy DeVoses and Steve Mnuchins of the world off the hook.
Sam Liebhaber
Vergennes