What do you think?

I was at the meeting Tuesday night (www.FranklinOne.com).
500+ people packed the gym. Cars were on Route 7.
The people of Georgia stood united in red behind their freedom of choice.
Red is GEMS school color.

A letter read on Carolyn Branagan's behalf received thunderous applause.
The text follows:

Dear Friends,

Since I am unable to attend tonight's meeting, my friend and neighbor
Dan Harvey has agreed to read this statement for me.

First, I'd like to commend the school board for thinking about ways to
cut school costs. I hear all the time from taxpayers in our town who
tell me they are having trouble paying their property taxes. This is
especially true for elderly members of our community who are on fixed
incomes and reside on properties they have owned for a long time. All
possibilities for cutting school costs should be on the table. School
property tax rates are largely based on expenditurees at the local level
and the school budget is voted upon locally. Control of local costs
absolutely needs to be part of any comprehensive school planning
discussion. The school board members have done us a service by opening
the door to a community wide discussion on the best ways we can keep
cost under control.

We are fortunate to have inherited a fine school system in our town. For
decades many Georgia school directors have made hard choices that
balance the desire to provide the best education for our children with
what local taxpayers can afford. On the issue of designation of a high
school however, Georgia voters have been clear in the past that they
value choice over any of the alternatives.

The change in state education law made last session was not intended to
be any kind of encouragement for communities to make the decision to
designate a school. It simply added public schools to the list of
allowable institutions for districts that do not have schools of their
own. Formerly, the list included only private and independent schools.
Now, public schools like BFA Fairfax are allowed too. This change was
intended to give more choice to school districts and left the final
decision making power with the voters, where it has always been.

Now, should Georgia designate a high school for our high schoolers? Will
such a change really save enough to make it worthwhile? Will parents
have more or less control over the course of studies? What about the
board's involvement? What about the students? Will such a change help or
hinder efforts begun locally to insure each child from our town gets a
world class education that will allow him/her to compete with students
from across the globe? These are all questions that remain to be
answered before a final decision is made.

There are other ways to cut costs. Among them are: exiting from the
Supervisory Union and assigning necessary administrative tasks to local
administrators; changing energy sources to renewables; making better use
of virtual schooling and opening the school building to year round classes.

One thing is clear to me. Georgia has currently the very thing that many
districts in the state would like to have. In Georgia we educate our
grade school children locally and then allow families to choose a high
school that best fits the needs of their child. This is school choice at
its best and I have seen it work well for hundreds of Georgia families.

Representative Carolyn Branagan
Vermont House of Representatives