Good education comes at a price

To the Editor: This letter is addressed to James R. Kauffman in response to his letter in the Feb. 9 issue of the Sparta Independent regarding the proposed new school. While I understand your concerns regarding the costs, I find your recommendations confusing. One example is your suggestion to lease a commercial building to house overflow students. How would these students attend all the required classes, including lunch? What would you propose then, adding a cafeteria? What if a student requires medical attention? Would you also pay for a nurse on site? Would a bus stand by to take the students back to the school for gym? This list could go on and on. Oh, and for your current taxes of $18,556, would you want your child ‘temporarily’ housed in a commercial building? Are our big houses worth more than a state of the art high school? Prefab additions was another suggestion. How many? Four? Five? Where would they be placed, on the current baseball field? Mr. Kauffman, while I certainly share your concerns regarding the costs and can relate to the analogy of the Ferrari versus a GM (in my case, $8,400 in taxes, a Camry and two kids in college), I do not endorse your proposals. Have you seen our recent SAT scores? Schools in Sussex County that typically fell below Sparta’s average are now exceeding our scores. This is directly related to the overflow of students in the classrooms. What does that say about our priorities? I want Sparta to be known again for providing students a great education in small classes. I want the SAT’s to reflect the high priority that we as Spartans place on education. And a good public education does not come without a price. I would like to refer to a familiar fairy tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” It is a tale about an emperor (Sparta), who walked around expecting everyone to compliment his regal wardrobe. It took one child to bring the obvious to the attention of all: The emperor was naked. Mary McDermott Sparta