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On To The
Next Budget
To the editor:
In a community whose government is dominated by people who can easily afford to-and often do-send their children to private schools, and who feel they personally need little from local government by crime protection, it’s hardly surprising that public schools and other public services get short shrift when it comes to setting tax rates.
Yet the institution of Free, Compulsory, Public Education is a cornerstone of this republic. In the end, deterioration of the quality of our schools and the neglect of public programs in general will hurt all of us, including those whose principal aim has been to save on taxes.
What then can be done? Obviously nothing if too few people in the community care deeply enough about public education and other public services to take the trouble to make their views known. One of our recently departing teachers-one of a distressingly large number — wrote in a letter to this newspaper that the people of this community simply do not care enough about good education. It would be difficult to challenge that statement on the basis of the public record.
Still, we do challeng'e it. Our years in Rappahannock County convince us that the community has more than its
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