A question of priorities
The state Senate Democratic caucus has offered a budget proposal that would, among other things, rescind the proposed closing of Ogdensburg Correctional Facility and keep state parks open. The news was quickly hailed as a major victory by the task force that has been working to keep the prison open, and by the communities with state parks that were slated to close.
Of course, it’s a long stretch between the Senate’s proposal, which its members are calling a road map, to a final budget. The Assembly will also weigh in with their proposal, and then the governor, politically emasculated as he appears to be, has the ultimate power of the line item veto to throw a final monkey wrench into the works. Still, the prison and state parks proponents are elated.
But…the Senate plan also cuts $1.4 billion from aid to education. And while the prison proponents have shouted almost every day about the 280 jobs that will be lost if the prison closes, if you’ve been reading the Times over the past couple of weeks, you’ll remember that school district after school district is planning staffing cuts. Massena has put 33 positions on the table, Potsdam around 20, Canton at least 12, and on and on. If enough schools eliminate enough positions to equal 280 prison jobs, will anyone in St. Lawrence County rent a bunch of tour buses and head to the capitol to protest it?
Somehow, I doubt it. And therein lies a problem. When I was much younger, whenever I whined about some chore or task I was facing, my grandfather would always say “Times are tough all over, bud.” It was his way of reminding me that everyone faces unpleasant realities every day.
In reality, the prison as a cause is low-hanging fruit. The jobs are all right there in front of us, that big old stone building looms as you travel Route 37, the prison union is tight-knit and well organized, and focused, in this case, on one site. That union isn’t reminding people, though, that all the jobs at Ogdensburg will be available elsewhere in the system. It is not a perfect solution for anyone who is facing the prospect of packing up and moving, or engaging in the long “weekend commute,” but it does protect generous health care and pension benefits.
Teaching jobs that are eliminated, on the other hand, don’t just result in a transfer. They result in real pain. And for the community, they result in a hole in the educational system, holes that cannot strengthen a system that is already under pressure from state and federal performance requirements. So not only do employed members of the community suffer, the educational system takes a hit – meaning kids who have no stake in paying taxes or being part of the political process nevertheless become the victims of political decisions.
You don’t have to be unsympathetic to the prison workers’ concerns to wonder just where our priorities are. A shrinking prisoner base should force the state to reconsider the application of its correctional assets. With 20,000 fewer prisoners over a decade or two, we as taxpayers should in fact be demanding that the state adjust the size of the system. The only real way to do that is to consolidate and close some prisons. Some towns are going to be affected by that.
On the other hand, to force contractions in school districts without considering whether those moves are educationally sound is not good public policy and it’s not good for children who desperately need a good education.
As my grandfather said, times are tough all over. In tough times, it’s more important than ever to set realistic priorities. Unfortunately, the forest gets lost for the trees over and over and over. And we fight and fight for prison jobs that may be luxuries, and we ignore the loss of teaching jobs we can ill afford to lose.
