Vote if you want to have a say in your town!

George Peabody said "Education is a debt due from present to future generations." On April 15, you must pay your taxes and vote in Brick Township's war against poverty.

That's right - poverty. Because at some point we have forgotten that the best defense against poverty is with a good education. Paying your taxes on April 15 gives you the right to vote on a school budget that has seen too many past defeats. Too many flat years that didn't even count for inflation and a gap in funding between what one of the lowest spending districts needs to provide in basic services versus what the state is offering with its new school-spending formula.

You have a chance to vote for change in a Board of Education that has been reactive and not proactive for too long. A group that obviously needs fresh faces and new ideas and that doesn't ransom our town's future growth. A group that doesn't take every public question as a personal insult, but as a point of view yet explored.

Past actions have left many Brick taxpaying residents sending their children to private schools working two or three jobs to do so. Why? Because the buildings are falling apart or being closed and textbooks are outdated. Why? Because private schools offer full-day kindergarten and families need to work to afford to live here. For those that wish to stay in a public education system, they are offered failing schools and many of our students leave Brick unprepared for college. They are offered an option to accept underfunding as an excuse for everything from sports to special education.

Who exactly is to blame, you may ask? Well, have you ever voted? If you answered no, then you are the problem. If you do not vote and learn more about our town, you should have no voice and have no reason to even ask that question. What has happened to our schools and the future of our children is the result of a long history of poor voter turnout.

Please remember the words of Thomas Jefferson, "Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government." Please get informed!

Geoffrey Dubrowsky

Brick