To the editor:

I’ve got some questions that need to be asked before we all vote in the FTR. Specifically, what will throwing more money at the school department, as budget #2 does, do for our kids?

The school department gets more money every year. Have you taken a look at test scores lately? Have you seen anything in writing from the school department that convinces you that they have an actionable plan to use the extra money to improve education in Tiverton? Or is this just an exercise in throwing money at the problem and hoping for the best?

I think it's incredibly disrespectful to the voters of Tiverton – any community for that matter - for the school committee/department to tell us, “Just give us the money we want and no, we don't have to justify our request to you with a specific explanation as to how we plan to use it. Just give us the money.”

Let me say this to all the parents with kids in the Tiverton school system. I can't help wondering if those of you, who so aggressively support budget #2, ever think about your parents and grandparents. Maybe they're passed or living in some other town, no doubt, being impacted by people like you. But how about other people’s parents and grandparents?

I predict that when your kids are out of the system and especially when you're retired like I am, you will contract a strange malady like many of the people you criticize have. It's called fiscal skepticism. You will no longer fall for the "trust me I know what I'm doing with your money" claims, at which time I'll be more than happy to welcome you to the club from wherever I am at the time.

That said, isn’t it interesting to see that Tiverton is not the only town with serious questions about how school department revenue is being used? I see that the Middletown Town Council just learned that $250K in bonuses has been paid out to school department employees since 2013 – totally unbeknownst to the Town Council. How can that happen, you ask? Well, tell me how that could not happen in Tiverton.

I’m not saying Tiverton school department employees are being given similar bonuses. What I am saying is, how would you know with the incredible lack of transparency in school department fiscal matters?

And isn’t it interesting to see that the Middletown teachers fall back on the same tired justifications for relentless budget creep? How dare you attack the children! No raises? Give me a break. How about step raises? How about retirement plans the likes of which the rest of us will never see?

And that reminds me. Did any of you happen to read Arlene Violet’s article in the recent issue of the Sakonnet Times on unsustainable publicly funded pensions? If you haven’t, you need to. And keep in mind that when she refers to “locally run pensions”, that includes teachers’ pensions. Can you say “unfunded liabilities”? How do you think those pensions have been propped up this long? Wake up, folks.

Terence Garvey

Tiverton