To the editor:

Reading the lead story about property taxes in Sunday’s paper was enlightening. I certainly understand why those on fixed incomes are concerned about their property taxes rising. However, their complaints aimed at school teachers and administrators are unfounded. Schools across the state pay teachers poorly, ask teachers to work in buildings that are falling down and, increasingly, demand work of them for which they are not trained (see the special education story also on Sunday’s front page).

One line in the story about property taxes rang true. It said that the new levy the school board is contemplating was “made possible when state legislators passed a new school finance bill.” Sounds like the Legislature fixed the problem, doesn’t it? Well, it didn’t. Had the Legislature done its job, it would not have passed responsibility for properly funding schools along to school boards. Funding schools is the state’s job. It says so in the state constitution. The truth is that legislators did not have the courage to raise equitable taxes during an election year.

We have the opportunity to constitute a new state House of Representatives this year. Don’t let legislative candidates tell you they held the line on your taxes when they “solved” the state’s school funding problem. They didn’t. They just passed it along to local taxing entities, shirking their responsibility to the state’s children and teachers while, by definition, raising your property taxes.

David Dewar,

Lawrence