The following letter was printed in the Arlington Advocate in February, 2003 and brought together many people willing to work towards a solution to Arlington's fiscal crisis. We're not out of the hot water yet.

When No Child Left Behind becomes Every Child Left Behind

According to the front page of February 13th's Advocate, Arlington is facing a $13.1 million deficit in the coming fiscal year. The Selectmen still think that talks of an override are premature. What I want to know is:

At what point does No Child Left Behind become every child left behind in Arlington?

Is it when 5 more children are added to every classroom? Or is it when the class sizes grow beyond 30?

Is it when all the Advanced classes at the high school are combined with the Honors classes or is it when all the reading specialists at the elementary schools are let go?

Is it when the staff becomes so overburdened that they can’t take the time to follow up on chronically absent or tardy or misbehaving children until they drop out of the system?

Is it when the children who are interested in science, art, music, books, athletics, or foreign languages no longer have a specialist who can take them farther than they can go on their own?

Or is it when the Public Library closes early 5 out of 7 days of the week and doesn’t open at all on Sundays?

Or maybe it’s when our Public Safety Departments no longer have the manpower to prevent troubled or bored children from getting into trouble?

We are cutting into the life blood of our schools and our town services. These cuts mean fewer children learning how to read, it means fewer children graduating high school with skills, it means fewer children being able to place out of college level classes and so making college unreachable for them. It also means more children lost to the system with nowhere to turn to for help.

With a $13 million deficit, we will need to make painful sacrifices, as there is no way to make up $13 million through better efficiencies alone. However, as we cut, we need to ensure that we don’t cut so deeply that we kill the patient. The only practical solution to Arlington’s dire fiscal situation is a combination of significant budget cuts along with an increase in revenues. I plan to work hard to pass an override in this town. I hope you will join me and do your best to help us through this fiscal crisis.

I want to see Arlington express its collective outrage and work hard for an override so No Child will be Left Behind!