Opinion: Dartmouth has a history of under prioritizing the school budget

To the editor:

For at least the last half-decade, Dartmouth has underprioritized the schools.  From FY19-FY25 the DPS has received a budget increase of 23.3%.  There are 35 line items in the budget which the Town has direct control over.  During this same time period 16 line items have increased faster than the schools, in some cases substantially. For example, Town Administration 78.1%, Building Dept. 63.6%, and Park Commission 63.3% (for a complete list, please see the online publication).

If all other town departments were able to hold their ACTUAL spending to the same rate of increase as the schools from FY19 to FY23, it would have resulted in overall savings of $787,733 in FY24. That is 3/4 of the way to solving the immediate fiscal cliff we are approaching. Unfortunately, we can’t look backward to go forward.

To be clear, our town departments are working on a shoestring budget; to cut them would mean painful service reductions to the town at large. But our children have already received their painful service reductions these past two years.

So, I agree with my dueling op-ed partner, we need to know the plan to fix the funding for our schools, and the options are neither pretty nor pleasant.  But the one option that should not be on the table is to ask our children to continue bearing the town’s financial burden on their own.

***A version of this Op-Ed was published online only on 3/19/25. Since then, the DPS presented a plan to reduce the reliance on savings to fund operating expenses. While this plan does not fix all of the school budget problems, it does address what I view as the most imminent risk facing the DPS. I urge the Selectboard and FinComm to endorse this plan, and for Town Meeting to pass it.***

Sincerely,

Nathan Silva