I witnessed an ambush at the Jaffrey-Rindge school deliberative session on Feb. 5.

Technically, I have no dog in this fight. I have no children or grandchildren in the school district, but I was raised to believe that community members owe a good education to the next generation. There was a large audience sitting in the bleachers. As the night wore on, I realized that most of the audience and those testifying don’t use our public schools.

The speakers calling for cuts to the school budget cited disappointing standardized test results as justification. One homeschool parent testified that “you can’t spend your way out of this.” That is such an unhelpful statement. Where were these people when the budget was being developed?

What really upset me was the unfairness of the attack on our public schools. It’s unfair for homeschool and private school supporters who don’t participate in standardized testing to attack the public schools based on test outcomes. Someone rallied people to show up to criticize our public schools and to make deep cuts to the budget because they don’t use those schools. Someone purposely worked to divide our community instead of building it up.

I hope Rindge is better than that. I hope we actually do love our neighbors and have concern for the next generation. Please vote against the proposed $30 million budget and vote for the CTE. Invest in our community and our children. It will give you hope for tomorrow.

Patricia Martin

Rindge