Mohawk has received a very large grant from the state to study and recommend solutions for sustainability. Who could not be pleased with that?
Well as an official contrarian I have a few questions about the windfall.
1) Why are we spending money with consultants (at great cost but no accountability) when it was expert consultants who predicted a 10% growth in the next 10 years as the basis for doubling classroom spaces in all our schools in West County in the mid-90s?
2) What have all the previous studies since then said?
3) Will we have the courage to follow any recommendations?
A more practical solution might come about if all school committee members, select boards and interested citizens read the draft “A Sustainable Future for Rural Schools,” Commission on the Fiscal Health of Rural School Districts, May 20, 2022, established by Chapter 132 of the Acts of 2019.
If this report had landed in Boston with some southern state name on it there would be snide smirks about southern states. But it exposes the Massachusetts underbelly.
While I do not believe in ‘equity,’ I do work for fairness but in my life I see some animals are more equal than others. Yet here and now all political talk is about equity and rights while this report should be an embarrassment to the commonwealth. The blatant inequities are a disgrace.
Education reform was started under Gov. Dukakis (1978) up to the 1993 McDuffy v. Secretary of Executive Office of Education (415 Mass 545) that brought about education reform and a big push for regionalization. Now we see ‘dis-economies’ of scale with our huge regionals. For over 20 years town officials have challenged the growing amounts demanded of these small towns. The MASS, MASC, and former DOE — now DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) have a lot of explaining to do. For years many of these findings were presented by dissenters to funding.
While common folk challenged the experts on their earlier numbers, the state in the 90s had only one expert who could explain the formula.
The evidence is laid out in this new rural report for another lawsuit. Yes, that will take years. The other course is for the Legislature to fund the $50 million needed but please understand that is one percent of the state budget for the one percent of the state’s population that lives in Franklin County. We live in the poorest county in a very prosperous state that is so righteous in telling us what we must do without the financial ability. For too long some, with a degree of virtue signaling, have attempted to diminish, demean or destroy anyone who dares to question anything with schools.
Marguerite Willis was a Mohawk and HRS School Committee Member for Charlemont from 1994-2009.