Letter to the editor

Mon, 05/05/2025 - 5:01pm

On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists boarded ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 90,000 pounds of British tea overboard. George Washington explained this act of defiance: “What is it we are contending against? Is it against paying the duty… on tea because it is burdensome? No, we could not be deprived of this essential and valuable part of our constitution.”*

Washington was defending the “constitutional principle of self-government by consent.”* Taxation without representation drove the colonists that night and ultimately started a revolution. The goal of that revolution was self-governance, not the reduction of taxes seen as necessary to build and sustain this country and ensure the common good of citizens.

The Declaration of Independence states that governments derive “their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.”** But consent means very little unless it is informed consent. Information is key to self-governance. So, when we exercise self-governance, residents deserve to know that in Edgecomb…

The proposed school budget would result in a 2.7% increase in assessment, commensurate with cost of living expenses increases nationwide and in Maine
The tax burden due to education went down in 3 of 4 years between 2021 and 2024
$950,000 of educationally designated funds was used to offset the tax burden during this time
The per student cost of education in Edgecomb is equal to that of the C.S.D. and RSU 1
The 2022 audit showed an unassigned fund balance of $79,315, not $669,331 as claimed by other sources
The cost of the social worker is shared with Georgetown and therefore has not increased by more than 600%, as claimed by other sources
EES academic performance is above state average in the majority of recent standardized tests, not suffering as claimed by other sources
See YouTube channel SinclairSchools at https://youtu.be/FkYPfOC-lcE for more information