Why Not Cut Sports?
I cannot let Brian Reilly’s May 27 letter on funding for school sports go unanswered. Yes, if funding for sports is cut from our school budget, then parents will have to pay to have their children play on sports teams. What is wrong with that? For all too many parents of school athletes, the sports that their children participate in are all too often either entertainment for the parents or a way for at least one of the parents to live out their own sports fantasies. The only sacred cows in the budget are those activities that contribute to a child’s education. Anyone who says that sports do that has to prove it, something that the letter does not do.
Certainly health is crucial for children, but what do sports contribute to that except for a chosen few? I went to a large high school in Los Angeles (admittedly many years ago). I was big for my age and possibly could have been on the football team had I chosen to try. But I did not. I had no wish to play sports. I certainly needed exercise, but I never got it. I had to take physical education, but those of us not athletically inclined were generally left to our own devices.
The high school athletic staff were jocks and were only interested in students who were also jocks. They really did not care about the rest of us. I was not mature enough to know that I should have been forced to exercise; I was happy that they left us alone. I am sure that athletic staffs are more aware now of the needs of their non-athletes, but I wonder how much they care. Their success depends upon how well the football or baseball team does and not on whether most students are more fit when they graduate than when they enter.
When I graduated, I was fortunate enough to get a good summer office job in a large company. They were very interested when I told them that I was president of the science club. They did not ask if I had participated in sports.
How this country competes with countries such as China will depend upon the intellectual education of our students vs. their students and not upon how well we play ping pong. If tax dollars for education are getting scarce, then we should concentrate what we have on the activity schools were created for: the teaching of knowledge. Team sports contribute nothing toward that end. General student fitness is indeed part of that end (there are few fat intellectuals) and should be supported because it benefits all students.
Arnold Sirota
Wycombe Way, Princeton Junction
Use Budget Surplus For Tax Relief
The West Windsor Plainsboro school district budget has just been finalized. So now we have a year before we have to worry about taxes. Not so. At the May 24 school board meeting, they began the discussion of what to do with this year’s surplus.
The finance committee chair reported that the district will have favorable spending this year. He did not state how big a surplus but proposed that rather than letting it go to tax relief that it be used to replenish the capital reserve. Let me try to explain.
Over the past several years the district has under spent against the general fund budget by significant amounts. In 2007-2008 the favorability was $7,613,578, in 2008-2009 it was $9,038,054, and in 2009-2010 it was $7,564,475. By state law, these funds get returned to the taxpayers as tax relief in the second subsequent year. However, the school board has the opportunity to designate these monies as a capital reserve and avoid giving it back.
Over the past several years the district has chosen to minimize tax relief, build this capital reserve, and use it for projects with little public scrutiny.
In the 2011-2012 budget, the district authorized the spending of $4,137,160 from that capital reserve. The board described this spending as energy-related projects but has never released a list of the projects to the public. Conveniently, this spending from the reserve does not appear in the budget numbers and deflates the true year over year increase in spending.
The school board can only authorize this increase in the capital reserve during the month of June. Most likely, it will be on the agenda for the meeting on Tuesday, June 14.
If you want to maximize tax relief, tell the school board to stop with the budget games and give us back our money back.
Quentin Walsh, CPA
4 Petty Road, Plainsboro
Walsh’s wife, Ellen, is a member of the school board. The views in this letter are his opinions and do not represent her views.
