At tonight’s city council meeting councilor Kurt Wright proposed a resolution that would place the following question on the ballot of the March, 2006 Annual City Meeting: “Shall the Vermont Legislature be urged to adopt legislation that would require that bargaining for teachers contracts in Vermont be accomplished either on a state wide basis with the possibility of allowances for legitimate regional differences, or, alternatively, on at least a regional basis?”.
I feel that giving up local control over teacher’s pay is not a good idea. As Mayor Clavelle said tonight, we don’t have much local control in this city as it is. He stated that the idea of local control is a myth and we need to get over it. If this is true and the city cannot make any decisions on things that really matter, than why do we have so much city government!
I think we often give up to quickly and too often on matters that involve the state government. We need to take back our control of local matters. I do not agree with giving up this authority just to make things easier on us. With freedom comes responsibility. If we want to preserve what freedom we have over our lives we must step up to the plate and take the responsibilities we have as a city.
