The Ruse of MC2

To the Editor:

The September 21 Sentinel editorial, "Woe Monadnock" stated: "The school (MC2) uses several hundred thousand grant dollars out of a district operating budget of $30 million." However, in the budget just presented, Monadnock taxpayers are being asked to pay almost $700,000 towards MC2 plus operating costs which brings the total to about $750,000. The current Federal Grant may not be renewed. Will districts sending students to MC2 pay the full cost per student without the grant? Or will MC2 be only Monadnock students next year, ( presently only 16!) driving the cost per student into the stratosphere!

Is it possible that school board members, teachers, parents and others were duped into believing that MC2 was primarily about education? To get the millions of Federal grant dollars piped into our academic region, several things were needed. First, a failing school district. Enter Winchester. Next, a school of choice. Could it be that those who sought this Federal handout devised, in the words of the previous superintendent, the "first school of choice in our region," MC2, to fit the bill? The administration, in 2002, did not apply to the state for a school charter. That would have meant putting MC2 on the ballot as required by law. That year there were votes on a new $28 million high school, big budget, and teacher contract. A school of choice proposal hadn't a chance. The public wasn't informed that the administration didn't apply for the charter and since no application was made, no vote was mandatory. Do the Feds know that MC2 was never really a school of choice?

Once MC2 appeared, the millions of Federal grant dollars started flowing into our academic "system." Monadnock got a few hundred thousand. The rest went to academic entities all over our area. It's still a mystery as to the specifics of how the millions were spent. However, one thing is certain; MC2 was pivotal for the grant money to flow.

Information about MC2 was initially scarce, i.e., how many students participated, payroll dollars, workday length. The School Board didn't inquire, few bothered to read the grant or investigate activities at MC2. Not until a few brave souls started to check into the "guts" of MC2, did the education of the students become a hot topic. Suddenly, the praises of MC2 were being sung on the radio, in the newspaper and at board meetings. Employees who had a vested interest in MC2 chanted the loudest.

As many taxpayers feared when MC2 was first foisted upon us without our consent five years ago, we are now being asked, without a vote, to pick up the entire cost of what is currently labeled a "program." And the drumbeat of praise for MC2 has begun again. See this website, www.monadnocktaxpayers.org for more info regarding MC2. MC2 was designed as a jobs program from day one. Its primary purpose was never about education, it was about funneling federal monies into our academic system. And that has come at a tremendous expense to the taxpayers, who now must pick up the total cost of this "program" and whose expenses will undoubtedly continue to rise in the ensuing years.