School Initiatives Chokes on Bone

A little less than 4900 braved yet another soggy Saturday to vote in last weekend’s election. While a small number overall, it represents more than double the voter turnout in April’s election where the Community Preservation Act triumphed. About 29% of registered voters in town came out to vote solely on education issues and the best that can be said of the turnout is that the victory of question 1 and the defeat of question 2 were well beyond a margin of 8 votes.

I’ve read reports that people didn’t know this vote was even happening or of locals that didn’t bother to head to the polls. Not in my neighborhood. We emailed each other, lobbied each other, reached out to spread the word and remind each other to make time to vote. One of my neighbors even took another neighbor to the polls because she could not drive herself having recently had major surgery.

This vote was important to many people. And the turnout illustrates 3 kinds of voters: 1) those that stay informed about local politics and go to the polls, 2) those that do not stay informed and do not go vote, and 3) those that do not stay informed and still vote.

I’m not sure which is worse; uninformed non-voters or uninformed voters?

Many newspaper articles and some commentators seem to want to find a large message here, a clear message, if you will, telling searching for meaning in the chaos. Just to recap, question 1, a measure raising $687,000 for furniture and computers for the high school in a short term, minute increase in property taxes passed. Question 2, a $1.8 million proposition 2 ½ override that would have balanced the school budget and added teachers to our system for a permanent increase of $160 (in the first year), failed. In fact, overrides are failing all over the state, for those that even make it to the ballot.

Education funding is complicated. Making it accessible to parents and residents is the role of elected officials, helping residents understand the nature of the budget, expectations about what is reasonable and what can be expected in the future. It seems to me that the folks of U-25 worked exceptionally hard for several months to get something done not just to stem the bleeding in our schools, but actually improve the situation. Their dedication and fortitude is commendable and I hope we’ll see them again next year, in even bigger numbers, trying to do the right thing for the kids.

And I hope the economy and consumer confidence improves such that we can afford to do the things we need to do to make education in Tewksbury robust. Until then, though, I’m afraid the schools are fighting a sort of financial inertia destined to end in poor literacy, lower testing scores, and an inability for Tewksbury students to compete academically for limited college spots.


The school committee will be very busy in coming weeks making necessary cuts to meet the budget. Watch this space to see if we can swallow the bitter pill to come.