East Lyme has been facing an education budget issue that is very common around the state and the country. All levels of government increased funding for education during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, praising our teachers and other frontline workers as heroes, and saying how they deserve every resource to help students succeed during this cataclysmic event.

But now it is nearly three years later, and teachers are not heroes anymore. To some, teachers and students are a needless expense for the taxpayer, and now that their kids are out of school, it is not fair for them to have to pay for someone else's kids' education.

Every student deserves to get the best education possible. We cannot do that by cutting teachers, paraprofessionals, or other education workers, and then expecting the remaining faculty to do more with less. We cannot be a great country and a great democracy without a great public education system, and we cannot do that without investing in our teachers and students. So I ask you, the next time someone says that we cannot afford to pay for education, tell them how we cannot afford not to.

Nicholas Menapace

Niantic