To the Editor,
The passage of Monroe’s budget is good news.
Our schools avoided a setback, and the voters of this town made it clear that education still matters here.
Nearly 3,100 residents participated in the most engaged budget referendum Monroe has seen in years – an encouraging jump, even if our town is capable of far more participation than that – and a clear majority chose to support the budget and the schools that depend on it.
But let’s not confuse progress with resolution.
Because the truth is, this budget did not represent some bold new investment in Monroe’s schools. It represented the minimum required to keep Monroe from slipping further from the standards this town has long expected.
And even getting there took weeks of public concern, political pressure, and a community-wide debate over whether maintaining the status quo was worth the cost.
That alone should tell us something.
Monroe’s schools are still highly rated, and that’s something we should be proud of. But those rankings reflect what’s been built over many years – not the direction we may actually be heading. And that direction is becoming harder to ignore.
If we think we can continue funding only the minimum and somehow preserve the level of education Monroe has long been known for, we’re fooling ourselves.
Strong schools do not sustain themselves on reputation. They require staffing. They require support. They require resources. And, above all, they require a willingness to invest before the cracks become impossible to hide.
We’re already seeing the strain. We saw it in how quickly legitimate needs became vulnerable the moment the budget came under pressure. We saw it in the superintendent’s acknowledgment that districts are increasingly being asked to simply “make it work.” And, perhaps most importantly, we’re seeing it across Connecticut, where state leaders are finally admitting what many towns have been saying for years: school funding has not kept pace with reality.
Yes, the recently announced state aid is a welcome step, but it’s only a drop in the bucket.
Let’s be honest – if communities across the state are still fighting this hard just to maintain basic educational quality, then the larger system is still failing the towns it expects to carry the burden.
And it’s not just our schools feeling the pressure. Municipal services are stretched as well, and town leaders are forced to make the same impossible choices in budget after budget while residents are asked to pay more and accept less.
Nothing about that is sustainable.
Monroe sits in one of the highest-cost counties in one of the highest-cost states in the country. Expecting top-tier schools, reliable municipal services, and long-term community stability while insisting those costs should somehow stop rising is simply not realistic.
I understand why this vote made people uncomfortable. Families are stretched. Seniors are stretched. Taxpayers are stretched. But discomfort doesn’t change the facts.
The reality is that maintaining a desirable town in an increasingly expensive region costs money.
And true “fiscal responsibility” can’t simply mean spending less. It has to mean investing wisely enough to sustain and strengthen the schools, services, infrastructure, and property values that make Monroe worth paying to live in.
Because strong schools and strong municipal services do not survive indefinitely when the solution is always to trim, delay, or settle for less. Refusing to face that just guarantees harder conversations later.
This was never simply a choice between spending more and spending less. It was a choice between dealing honestly with what our town needs, or kicking those realities down the road and hoping our reputation alone can carry us forward. And if this process revealed anything, it is just how little room for error we actually have.
Because if we’re fighting this hard just to stand still, we should all be asking a much bigger question: What happens when standing still is no longer enough?
Passing this budget is an important step forward. But it is not the finish line.
The real victory will come when Monroe – and towns like ours – are no longer forced to battle over maintenance-level funding while the demands on schools, municipalities, and taxpayers continue to rise around them.
That means pushing for more honest conversations locally, stronger solutions at the state level, and a broader willingness as residents to stay engaged in the decisions that will shape Monroe for years to come.
This referendum should not be the end of the conversation, but the beginning of one we should have been having all along – because our children, and our town, deserve better than another year of simply trying to get by.
Sincerely,
Kevin Middendorf
All respectful comments with the commenter’s first and last name are welcome.
