With school board budget hearings starting up this week in Rockland, I wanted to comment on how ridiculous I find the timing of these meetings. I worked at a newspaper in Connecticut for the past two years, and in that state, budget hearings happened before the boards of education adopted their budgets. The school boards could then alter their plans according to how enraged the public was. People in East Hartford, the town I covered, would come out and assail their town officials, call the town a mess and complain about taxes. And afterwards things would change in the budget—small things, but things nonetheless. That doesn’t happen in New York. The hearings happen after the budgets get adopted, so residents can yell and scream all they want about higher taxes, it won’t change anything. They’ll just have to vote it up or down at the end of the month and that’s that.

Another thing about Connecticut, few towns and cities have their budgets up for a public vote, which can be seen as both good and bad, sure. But, since most school budgets are voted on in New York, shouldn’t the school boards and public get on the same page on what they want?

Otherwise, isn’t it just a waste of time?