School programs offer opportunities

5/24/07
When education budgets are slashed, it leads to more than larger classes and fewer textbooks. It can also take away opportunities.
Vocational-agricultural programs present an appealing option for some students. They offer a chance to learn a skill and develop abilities they may not learn elsewhere. They can also expose young people to different lifestyles and different groups of people than they are likely to meet in traditional classroom settings.
But, like everything worth having at school, they cost money. And as recent local budget fights have demonstrated, nothing is off-limits when it comes to saving a few dollars and pleasing the no-taxes-at-any-costs constituency. In the end, it’s the children who suffer for it.
Milford’s proposed budget would cut the option of the Trumbull regional vocational-agricultural program for its students. It would save about $100,000 from the education budget, or the cost of tuition and transportation for the 12 students currently enrolled. That’s not a small amount of money, but it represents one more lost opportunity, one less choice for Milford students.
The state mandates schools to fund only one vo-ag program per district, and because Milford is already linked with the Bridgeport aquaculture school, it has no obligation to continue working with the Agri-Science School at Trumbull High School. But education is about more than mandates and obligations. It’s about offering choices that students may not have known even existed. The Trumbull connection will be missed.
These programs are supposed to be regional in nature, and students meet people outside their typical circles. Opportunities to learn about aquaculture and agricultural science are hard to come by in most public schools, and though they may appeal to only a small subset of the student body, it’s hard to justify taking away a valuable learning tool.
Of course, textbooks and buildings and teachers cost money. And people are feeling the pinch of higher costs everywhere they turn, from the gas pump to the electric bill. But in one of the richest states in the country, we should do better. Schools should be opening doors, not closing them.