Opinion/Letters: Middletown voters need more information on school plan

Why all the fuss over new Rogers

I don't understand why there's such a commotion among the Newport School Building Committee, the School Committee and the City Council about the construction of the new Rogers High School. I think the project has been handled marvelously. The Aug. 23 edition of The Newport Daily News said the original bond for the project was secured in 2019 and the completion date for the new school is April 2025. This is only 6 years to build a school! Compare this to the building of the Panama Canal which took 10 years to go 51 miles and the building of the Suez Canal which also took 10 years but had to go much further - 120 miles. Please. No complaints from anyone. Today we have smartphones and computers so 6 years to build a new school is a minor challenge in the modern history world.

George T. Menas, Newport

Middletown voters need more information on school plan

The Middletown Town Council passed an $84M budget (about a 5% tax increase), after a 50-day delay to answer for the school department’s $1.3M surprise bill to taxpayers. The town's answer indicated that school department maladministration was the reason. The school administration failed to comply with its own accounting policy, exercised poor judgment in accounting, budgeting and procurement practices, for years in some cases, and the result was a RI law violation.

Now the Middletown Council and school department are marching voters to another surprise and possibly catastrophic bill, just as Newport government is doing to its citizens. Middletown government is marketing a November 2023, $190M bond for school construction. The town is being driven by a costly and incomprehensible RI Education Department process, and is already spending a lot of money on public relations consultants and architects to convince voters that a $190M debt is a good thing. The town just finished a conceptual school building design with an unknown price. There are no construction bids; no detailed project schedules; no specific plans and there is not a clear statement of needs, benefits, or alternatives.

Middletown voters don’t know exactly what the $190M bond will buy, how it affects property tax and if the bond is sufficient or even necessary; how can that be good for citizens?

Voters should reject Middletown’s $190M government school bond. Goals, metrics, benefits, and total ownership costs for new school buildings must be clear and precise, and there should be indisputable objective evidence for the need for the amount to be financed.

Paul Mankofsky, Middletown

Biden shows troubling signs

Troubling signs continue to emerge showing that the American electorate is souring on a second term for President Biden. A recent Associated Press/NORC poll found that 77% of voters think he's too old to serve again, including 69% of Democrats. These concerns are driven largely by Mr. Biden's unsteady performance and increasing frailties.

As informed political observers know, in order to ward off criticism over Mr. Biden's advanced age and obvious decline, Team Biden and their coat holders in the liberal media like to publicly portray Mr. Biden as vigorous and engaged, and as being fit, trim and active. To drive this narrative home, Mr. Biden's handlers like to show him enthusiastically riding his beloved Trek FX hybrid bike, the very same one he embarrassingly fell off of during a transparently staged photo-op in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware last year.

If nothing else, one thing has become abundantly clear. Mr. Biden is far more adept at peddling influence than he is at pedaling bicycles.

Michael J. DiStefano, Jamestown

Add one more item to your back-to-school list

With September here and my daughter, Arianna, getting ready to enter preschool, the excitement of a new school year can be felt everywhere. Soon, school campuses will be bustling with activity and streets will be lined with yellow buses as kids return to the classroom. As a parent, I know this can be a stressful time. However, I urge you to add one more item to your back-to-school list this year: a savings plan for your child’s education.

We all want what’s best for our children. That’s why it is so important to plan now for their academic future. The cost of higher education has risen dramatically in recent decades. According to Forbes, the average cost of a college education increased by 180% from 1980 to 2020. September is College Savings Month and, regardless of your child’s age, it’s never too early to start saving for their educational future.

Fortunately, Rhode Island offers the CollegeBound Saver program, a tax-advantaged savings plan (sometimes referred to as a 529 plan) that helps Rhode Islanders to save for college as well as trade and vocation schools affordably and comfortably. Regardless of your current financial situation, this program can make higher education more attainable for your child by the time they graduate high school.

As Treasurer, I am working to ensure Rhode Islanders have the tools they need to succeed. As a parent of two young children, the future cost of their higher education weighs heavily on me. As the cost of higher education continues to increase, today’s savings will prove to be tomorrow’s returns. While investing always carries risk, participating in the CollegeBound Saver program over the course of your child’s life can have a dramatic impact on your child’s education future when the time comes for them to pursue their dreams.

James Diossa, R.I. state treasurer

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Letters: Middletown voters need more information on school plan