Letter: Briarcliff Schools' Budget Struggle a Demonstration of Democracy

To the Editor:

The Briarcliff Manor budget struggle has become a powerful, impressive demonstration of democracy.  For the first time in memory, the school Board is fully engaged with the community in discussions and analysis of present and future expenditures.  This is truly democracy as it was intended since transparency and community interaction is a rare event at any level of American political or governmental institutions. 

Heretofore, all decisions made at levels from a school Board up to the Federal government have been made by elected representatives but those representatives have been strongly impacted by the lobbying of special interests.  This is no less true in Briarcliff Manor. 

What we have is a clear clash of interest groups.  In the past, the PTA exerted influence on the school Board, which was in a great part supported by the PTA, and combined with the administration to expand expenditures to a level which became unsustainable.  The previous Board reversed that trend but now a new school Board reversed that and we are back to square one.  Heretofore, we have not had all interest groups intersecting in a public arena.  For the first time, the taxpayers have been strongly represented in full vision prior to budget approval.  The interest groups in play here are the PTA, whose interest as it should be is primarily what it perceives as the quality of education received by the children.  The teachers are the second interest group which has a vested interest in class size, benefits, salaries and advancement as well as the milieu in which they teach.  The administrators are dancing between the teachers, the Board and the community to some degree trying to placate those who exert the greatest influence on them.  And finally, there are the taxpayers, whether they have children in the school or not, who have to bear the burden of all decisions made involving taxation.  The fact that we have individuals willing to spend the time and energy to look at expenditures as carefully as they would their own finances is a vital service to our community and allows democracy to truly function in an open forum albeit not necessarily always a pleasant one.

But as our Founding Fathers knew, and we should know but have forgotten, democracy is a messy, contentious system that only works when all sides are represented and there is transparency, as uncomfortable as it might be to some. 

So let the battles continue and hopefully we can bring light to which there’s only been darkness and bring knowledge to which there’s only been ignorance. 

Sincerely,
Victor M. Sternberg, D.M.D.
Hirst Road 
Briarcliff Manor

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