"Families Will Leave Clinton"

This letter is written by Hannah Bissell:

I am shocked and ashamed at the performance of the community yesterday. I felt numb. The message I received from the voters of this town is they want families to leave Clinton. At last week's town meeting, many people spoke against increases in budgets. The town asked what was wanted and they repeated over and over again they wanted 0% increase. The town managed to reduce their increase to only 1%. It passed. The Board of Education came back with EXACTLY what was requested: a 0% increase. Yet, voters voted it down. The CTA sat outside the polls telling everyone to vote no on both budgets. We did as asked and still they fought us. I am at a loss. If you tell us what you want and we give it to you and you continue to fight us down, what is our incentive to negotiate in the future?

Our schools are struggling financially. Programs are being cut or minimized. I refer specifically to the technology program, which I feel in this day and age is as essential as a core academic. Before and after school programs become limited leaving kids to roam the town bored, and potentially angry at the townspeople for doing this to them. Yes, they do take it personally. Early intervention will be reduced, which increases drop out rates. All of this means more crime in our town, costing taxpayers more money fighting crimes like graffiti, vandalism and drugs. Without all the programs the schools have to help them succeed, the deck is stacked against them. Then we get to keep right here in town a population of undereducated kids who are not qualified to get high-end jobs. This equates to less money in our town. Meanwhile, families will leave Clinton. We will move away to towns that value education. Those are prime tax dollars leaving your town. Sure, new owners will pay property tax, but that person will not have kids. One person to feed, clothe, and entertain not four. That is less money for the local businesses. It is a domino effect that no town can afford.

Information in handouts by the CTA at polls was misleading in that they are comparing our schools to schools not comparable to ours, specifically Madison and Guilford. Towns with mil rates are higher than ours. Towns where the same property will assess higher than here. This must be why their school budget is higher than our town and school COMBINED. Most important, Madison and Guilford are in the ERG (Educational Reference Group) A-B. Clinton is with Westbrook and Old Saybrook in Group C-E. ERG is a classification system in which school districts with similar socioeconomic status and need are grouped together for district level comparisons. Comparing between the two groups is manipulating data to meet your own designs and is dishonest.