Referring to the article about the Auburn school budget (Sun Journal, March 27), there were two School Committee members, Tracey Levesque and Laurie Tannenbaum, who said they are embarrassed that Auburn does not spend the minimum on education as recommended by the state.
They were referring to Essential Programs and Services.
Levesque also stated that the residents of Auburn should be embarrassed that they do not meet basic EPS for the students.
Those two ladies seem to believe in the EPS formula, recommended by the state, as being the gospel. I was wondering if they ever researched the methodology and computations to see how the brilliant minds in Augusta came up with that formula and just how reliable is it?
Tannenbaum complained that what Auburn residents spend on property taxes, only 37 percent goes for schools, while in many communities 50 percent of taxes goes for education. My question is: so what?
Apparently, she thinks one size fits all. How can one make such a statement when the communities are not comparable?
Recently, there was an article showing the cost of education has increased drastically over the years, and yet SAT scores have remained stagnant. Apparently, those ladies didn’t see that.
And, yes, I own property in Auburn, and have done so for many years.
I was just wondering … who should really be embarrassed?
Richard Smith, Lewiston
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