We are writing in response to Town Councilor Dan Harris’s column published on Monday, April 24.

Brunswick has a well-deserved reputation for its excellent teachers and schools. Just this week, Brunswick High School was listed as No. 11 in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of Maine high schools. But again, school funding is under attack from Gov. LePage who seems bent on dismantling public education. In his 2017 budget recommendation, LePage includes drastic measures that result in a loss of over $1 million to our schools, the third largest reduction statewide. He knows the Legislature won’t accept those cuts, but the real goal is to set expectations extremely low, instill fear and confusion and push towns and voters to cut local budgets in the name of “protecting property taxes.” It is a strategy of sabotage that will paralyze our towns and schools if we play along and it pits school boards against town councils in an unhealthy way.

As school board members, we say: stay calm and take the long view. Generations of Brunswick residents have built a great school system through their hard-earned money, work, and time. We have a duty: to educate this generation of Brunswick students, and leave a top notch school system intact for future students. We know our locally elected leaders share the view that education is a top priority

— because education is more crucial than ever for career opportunities, and its broader cultural and economic benefits that make Brunswick such an attractive place to live. A highly respected school system supports economic growth for our town, attracts businesses to the Landing and new families to the community — keeping property values high and the real estate market strong. Our public schools, along with Bowdoin College, ranked No. 6 among its peers, are an anchor for our quality of life.

For further evidence that this community supports education, last November, 60 percent of Brunswick voters supported Question 2 — an initiative that passed state wide setting a 3 percent surcharge on top incomes in the state adding $157 million in funding to education. If the governor was not ignoring Question 2, Brunswick would be receiving around $3M in additional revenues from the state. We won’t know until sometime in July, after our own budget is passed in June, what the state budget will be. However, we believe the legislature will not, on the heels of Question 2, support a budget that reduces funding for schools. Especially because the Maine Revenue Service is currently on track to raise even more than Question 2 projected.

That is why the school board has chosen the path of caution: in our initial proposal to the Town Council, we recommended cuts of $850,000 to our operating budget. Fixed costs and contractual obligations, have increased so our overall budget increases by .75 percent, leading to a 3.3 percent increase in the tax rate, about $115 for a median tax bill. If the Town Council requests further cuts, we anticipate room for discussion, but we are in a difficult position due to the Governor’s extreme actions.

The Governor’s proposal is an anomaly: he deviated so significantly from prevailing law that the Department of Education has used his proposed budget for expected allocations instead of prevailing law. This allows the Governor to set expectations very low. We say: don’t buy it.

It’s unfortunate but seems clear that the Governor is succeeding at causing panic at the local level. And his actions are not without irony. The governor himself created this funding problem by unnecessarily and repeatedly cutting taxes on those with the highest incomes. And now, even after Maine voters passed Question 2 to address this funding challenge, he still does not get it.

It would be a mistake for Councilor Dan Harris or anyone else to buy into the governor’s line of reasoning by recommending another $1 million dollar cut on top of those proposed at the state level. It’s exactly the sort of trap the governor would hope we walk right into. Additional cuts force our Superintendent to lay off a resource officer, 11 teachers, an administrator and a secretary; reduce funding for two ed techs, increase K-12 class sizes, and cut multiple arts and sports programs.

None of this — we repeat, none of this — is acceptable.

Instead reacting to a temporary political impasse in Augusta, we recommend a cautious budget and a sound plan for the long term. Our schools are too important to shortchange because of an over-the-top state budget proposal and rash decision-making at the local level. We believe that the Town Council and Brunswick voters will support a prudent school budget that protects the high quality of education in our town.

Sarah Singer has represented District 7 on the Brunswick School Board since 2014. Ben Tucker represents District 2 on the School Board and served on the Town Council from 2008-2013.