A gift to the future… and my vote on Bancroft

My first baby turned 10 just a month ago, my youngest turns 8 this spring.  These two young people are my pride, my love, and my gifts to the future, our future as well as theirs.  As a new parent, and the youngest of four in my own family by six years from my older brother, I knew nothing about parenting an infant.  Fortunately instinct and some classes before our first was born taught me enough to keep our daughter fed, clean, and dry.  Friends, family, teachers, and specialists helped me learn how to help my children learn, thrive, and prosper.

I knew our lives would be different after the arrival of our family, just how different couldn’t be anticipated.  There was, and is, a clear need to provide for both our current needs and to save for a future challenged by national and state debt, inflated college costs, and out-of-control medical and insurance costs.  Throwing in a deep recession for good measure just made the economic challenge harder.

The other challenges are ones that are more difficult to wrestle with.  Every parent wants their child to grow into adulthood with the social, moral, and intellectual skills that will give them as full a life as possible.  I learned that leading my children into adulthood required an investment of time from me, my wife, our teachers and other professionals – some paid for by tax dollars, as well as family and friends.

Today, one decade in to the process, my kids know every day that I love them, that they are expected to learn, be polite, exercise, eat right, and give back – and they do (albeit sometimes reluctantly).  I know that my investment into their future will only continue to grow and I have great faith in the possibilities that will be open to them.

I’m not an unbridled optimist, however.  My own fears – maybe yours too – growing up were nuclear annihilation, environmental destruction, war over oil, and civil strife based on racial inequality.  Looking down the road to my kids’ future the war may be over water, not oil, and terrorism might top nuclear destruction.  Add to the mix climate change and overpopulation and my motivation to give my kids every advantage possible is quite strong.

Today, many in town are making arguments for or against the purchase of the Bancroft property.  If you don’t know right now I’ll say clearly that I support the purchase but I see the merits of both arguments.  Times are tough, can we afford this?  Have we (personally, as a Borough and County) managed our current responsibilities as well as we should or can?  Is this the best use of the money?  For the conspiracy theorists, are their moneyed influences exerting an agenda here?

My decision comes down to my personal faith in the future, as simply explained in Hebrews 11:1.  “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Having children has taught me a lesson about faith and hope.  Why would I invest diligently in savings for them unless I had faith that they would excel in their primary education and go on to earn higher degrees?  Why should I spend time daily reading, Scouting, hiking, swimming, roller skating, growing crystals, doing math, spelling, talking, or just watching a movie together with them unless I had evidence that their future would be fulfilling to them and equally vital to the health of our society?

And what of our society?  Where will the earnings come from to fund Social Security for you and I when the number of earners to retirees ebbs down to 2 to 1 from 5 to 1 in the past?  Who will develop the medical breakthroughs that you and I will depend upon as we reach our 100th (110th or 120th) birthday?  (It will happen.).  Even more strikingly, who will lead the societal and technological changes that will distribute water and food far more efficiently than we do today?  9 billion people in the future are counting on it.

The people in Haddonfield are smart, no doubt about it.  Just sampling the arguments on Haddonfield Talks shines a light on many perspectives that are well-reasoned.  When I read the arguments, to me, they all reduce down to faith.  Do I have faith that I’m being told the whole truth?  Do I have faith in the stewardship of my current tax dollars?  Do I have evidence that more learning space is needed, or will technology transform the campus from a building to the world delivered on an iPad?

I know it will cost money to buy Bancroft.  I knew it when I helped set up a booth at the Fall Festival in 2006 to collect names of people interested in this purchase.  I knew it when I collected signatures in 100 degree heat downtown to put an initiative on the ballot for an Open Space tax.  Handing out free lemonade seemed to raise my success rate that hot day and the ballot passed and was renewed five years later by the voters of Haddonfield.  (By the way, I paid for the lemonade myself.)

Financially, we are at historic low interest rates; they may be up by 1.5 points by the end of the year.  In 2006 Bancroft could have been sold relatively easily for the $20 million sought, especially with the help of a proactive COAH (Council on Affordable Housing), now they will accept a bit over $12 million.  As Dave Seidell pointed out, the appraisal for use as a campus was $15 million.  In 2006 I personally researched and estimated their debt on the property at about $15 to 19 million from public records.  I don’t believe their banks would let them sell for much less.  It may not be the best deal possible but I don’t believe we are leaving $4 million on the table.  And, as one No voter pointed out, the $3.5 million in funds and grants represents taxes we have already paid.  If so, then why not use them for ourselves instead of giving them to someone else?

For those who would vote No, the success of this referendum puts a burden on all of us to see that we become better stewards of our tax dollars.  I agree with the No voters that we haven’t had a great track record of building maintenance or spending restraint, at least not until the Great Recession.  More to the point, we need to commit our Boro and BOE financial resources to the core mission of government, divesting or sharing those responsibilities that are not core, and always seeking more cost-effective alternatives.  We have already made some progress and we can still do more if we rethink how we deliver services.  If we had this much discussion, involvement, and debate around our Boro and BOE budgets 15 years ago we likely wouldn’t be complaining so much about our tax burden today.

For those who would vote Yes, the failure of this referendum puts a burden on us as well.  The No voters clearly see an alternative use for their income.  Perhaps it is something as basic as food or shelter, or maybe it’s just something more important to them personally.  To the Yes voters I would ask “What is your gift to the future?”  What will your saved $100, $200, $300, or $500 each year be dedicated to?  Individually it may not seem that great a sum.  Together it will amount to a millions each year.  Will those funds be dedicated to improving our school facilities as they exist today?  Repairing roofs? Investing in technology and teachers?  Clearly there are needs which are not met today that could use some financial help.

My vision for Bancroft today is like that of a father’s vision for an unborn child – a mixture of hope and trepidation.  Hope that the space leads to the further development of Haddonfield’s most successful industry – public education.  Hope that the space allows Haddonfield to be more than just a consumer of education through new media but also a producer – generating income for our district by allowing our teachers to deliver education without bounds.  Hope that the dedication of this space to public use will properly burden the downtown with (inevitable) redevelopment that will improve our ratables to offset this baby’s cost of care and feeding.  Hope that the additional greenspace allows each of us, not just kids, to enjoy greater time outdoors with family, pets, and nature itself.  Even hope that continued partnerships with other communities and colleges will lead to our retained leadership in public education well into the future.

Most of all, it is my hope that – if not for my children – then for the next generations to come, this space provides for the physical, moral, and intellectual development that will be demanded by a global, knowledge-based, resource-constrained society. Tomorrow’s learning will depend equally on technology and the interpersonal interaction of our young learners with other teachers, students, artists, and athletes in their school; in what we ALL agree should be a GREAT school.  If we are challenged by delivering another $200 each year in tax dollars to our community, just think how challenged the future America, including my kids, will be competing with a dominant Asia and competing for water, energy, talent, and capital.  Haddonfield better produce the brightest and most talented young people possible.  I have faith the Bancroft’s property will allow that to happen, not only for our own kids, but for kids with iPads and tablets everywhere learning from Haddonfield teachers and students.

Please be sure to vote!