The Gilbert Battle Continues

As has been the case in years past, a small group of residents has banded together to loudly criticize the town’s contract with the semi-private Gilbert School and call for reductions in funding to the high school.

The chief argument currently being raised by opponents of Gilbert’s contract states that the current system is not "fair and equitable" because Gilbert students receive much more money per student than do children in the town’s K-8 system. Critics go on to say that Gilbert charges more per pupil than many comparable high schools across the state and that the school uses its semi-private status to avoid financial accountability and shield itself from town scrutiny.

The critics may be half right about Gilbert. For decades, the school’s endowment has been shrinking, while the town has been footing a greater and greater percentage of the bill — up to about 95 percent of it — without majority representation on the high school’s directing board. That equation is obviously inequitable, and if it does not change in the next 10-year contract currently being negotiated between the Winchester and Gilbert boards, it certainly will have a strong chance of being rewritten in 2016. (Yes, there is a future, fellow taxpayers.)

In the case of the cries of unfair and inequitable funding within the school system, critics of Gilbert fall short with their argument. Citing figures that state the town’s public K-8 students are educated at a cost of $10,000 per student per year, critics have noted that the cost of educating a Gilbert student has risen to $12,304. That, they say, is not fair because it is prejudiced toward Gilbert students.

As we’ve said before, that argument falls flat because the critics are comparing apples and oranges. Most high schools have different costs than K-8 schools, so it stands to reason that the per-pupil expenses will be different. More importantly, the system is fair because students in the town’s K-8 system are eligible for a free education at Gilbert, the town’s primary high school.

That simple argument seems to be ignored by critics who appear more interested in disparaging Gilbert than coming up with an "equitable" solution. By the way, the solution critics seem to always come up with involves cutting funding to Gilbert. Why not increase funding to the K-8 system? The simple answer is that critics are coming from the angry point of view that schools are the enemy to taxpayers.

Ultimately, both sides will have to come together if anything is to change in Winsted. While the arguments have become old and tired, no one has offered a comprehensive, progressive solution. It just may take another decade or two for the town to figure out the answer.