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Burlington voters should swallow the bitter bill and approve the revised city school budget on June 3. The consequences of failure would only exacerbate the district’s problems and could end up cost taxpayers more in the long run.
Every dollar counts, and the district’s recent track record — a string of deficits, misleading budgets and lax record keeping — certainly leaves the schools with little claim on taxpayers’ purses. Administrators and school board members have nobody but themselves to blame for the district’s difficulties.
By approving the budget, voters are making a down payment on responsible oversight of the money taxpayers entrust to the district to educate the city’s children.
Passing the budget also would put the schools in a better position to both address the serious financial and management challenges facing the district as well as serve the best interest of the students.
The call to pass the budget is based on more than the overused argument of “for the children.”
The budget going before voters on June 3 has a serious image problem. The revised spending plan asks for more money than the budget defeated on Town Meeting Day.
Yet the March plan is bigger only on paper, the victim of a budget process that relied on the budget that was approved the previous year rather than what the schools actually spent.
With the budget before voters, Burlington schools propose to spend less money in the fiscal year starting July 1 than in the previous 12 months.
An actual dollar-for-dollar reduction in spending represents an extraordinary act for any government agency, let alone a school district that can claim a growing student body.
Burlington residents, as taxpayers, are better off giving the schools a budget that gives the School Board and district administrators a better chance at addressing critical problems.
The tax increase that comes with passage is only marginally more than what homeowners face under the so-called default budget, the spending plan the schools will adopt should voters say no — $101 for a home assessed at $300,000, less than $10 a month.
The difference is hardly negligible, but is a bearable price for keeping the schools from sinking further into crisis mode.
The School Board with new members and leadership installed since Town Meeting Day has shown a willingness to tackle the tough problems and deserves a chance to bring the district back on track. Board member must vow to never again allow such gross mismanagement to fester within the district.
In return, city residents have a right to demand the utmost transparency from the school district with regular reports about money spent and potential financial red flags pushed out to the public.
Burlington schools are on probation, and have until next Town Meeting Day to show city residents — parents, voters and taxpayers — the district truly has changed its ways.

SAVE THE DATE!!!