Eastbayri.com

To the editor:

This letter is being written from the perspective of a 51-year resident of Little Compton and the parent of five children who have passed through the school system, all of whom graduated from the high schools provided for them. Three of them have gone on to graduate from schools of higher education. None of them were fortunate enough to experience the feelings that come from experiencing their high school years in the same town where they were raised.

Reading of the current crisis our school system is facing and having witnessed the character of our town change from that of a family oriented, idyllic rural community populated by farmers, fishermen, tradesmen and mostly middle class families along with a few very wealthy ones , I realize that it is now a very different community.

I now see our town populated in majority by a group suffering from a severe case of what I call affluenza. A town where children and the elderly are considered an impediment to achieving the ideal environment which spends only those tax dollars that are required by law or that provide comfort, pleasure and an absolute minimum tax burden to those who have the power to shape the community. In short , we now live in a town that has become a plutocracy rather than a democracy.

Let no one misinterpret my comments as to inciting class war in town against the wealthy since I have witnessed acts of extreme generosity by certain prominent citizens of our town. The most recent is the funding of our local senior shopping bus by a compassionate lady who gathered a few friends and provided funds to operate the bus when the voters provided zero.

Educating children and providing services for the elderly will never be a financial boon to any community. But in communities that subscribe to the teachings of Exodus 20.12 and Luke18.15 as we supposedly do, it should be a moral rather than an economic decision to do so. While there are laws that mandate minimum services for both groups, anything beyond the minimum is left to local government.

The condition of our elementary school did not happen by accident or overnight. It is the result of many conscious decisions made by our school officials who served our political system over many years.

I believe that the demise of our school system began in earnest in 1966 when politicians convinced the public that we could not afford to expand our school to provide adequate space to continue educating grades K-12 as the state had demanded due to overcrowding. The decision was then made to farm out our high school grades to the lowest bidder and we have done so ever since.

I firmly believe that this decision was only part of a plan concocted to radically transform the very character of our town. It is coupled with 2 acre zoning and the real estate transaction tax designed to continue ad infinitum until there is no more real estate available to newcomers other than those who would not bring added children to our school.

The slogan Keep Little Compton Little has unfortunately resulted in making it small. I believe Yogi Berra once said, “There is no shame in being little but no excuse for being small.”

I feel that current plans to repair our school at a minimum level are shortsighted and represent a band aid approach to providing our children the education they deserve. Even if the referendum is approved, which I genuinely fear will not happen, we will have done nothing to provide for our high school children who I believe will no longer be accepted if and when Aquidneck Island regionalizes its schools. I also believe that the parents of our public school children have been lulled into apathy which will certainly result in our elementary kids being loaded on buses and sent out to the lowest bidders wherever that may be. Would such an outrageous proposal ever be put forward in our town? You can bet your kids’ education on it.

Unless our children can find a voice to speak for their future, I fear that history will certainly repeat itself and another Troy Bishop might pay the price.

Francisco Silva

Little Compton