What will Northampton’s future educational identity be? What is that identity now?

Those charging that supporters of level funding for our city schools are simply asking for other services to be short-changed are refusing to accept that the future of our city’s progress toward a healthy business and social hub largely depends on our schools attracting students from both within and outside our community.

Debasing our teachers and students with the cuts proposed this year will result in a continued vicious cycle of declining enrollment at each school in our city. More families will feel the need to flee our public schools year after year. Students from other cities whose enrollment at our schools are key to current funding models will continue the current trend of choosing other options instead of bringing their children to our schools.

Potential newcomers to our town will have to weigh a fading promise to educational quality with the brighter glow of other districts. What parent would choose a high school so underfunded that its seniors no longer receive a crucial adviser’s college recommendation?

As a family of a student in the schools and part of many generations in town, I am sad to watch a slow decline of our city’s educational possibilities. Ours is a community that must find a way to at least maintain the quality of our schools.

The loss of the attraction of a well-funded and robust educational environment will have negative long-term impacts on every aspect of our city. Including the very services being pitted anecdotally against it right now.

Jennifer James

Northampton