| Newton MA News and Politics Blog

Tweet modestly retouched


Wicked Local’s Chloe Gotsis tweets:

Alderman @tedhessmahan tells second [c]lass of #Newton North students to graduate from new building they are worth every dollar of that $197M

I appreciate what are no doubt Aldermen Ted’s sincere sentiments. (Isn’t one of his children among the darlings graduating?) But, they raise a question*: are the elementary and middle-school school children (past, present, and future) suffering with third-rate and worse facilities not worth the money we’re not spending?

And another: if they — the graduating NNHS students and, presumably, the students who will graduate before NNHS inevitably falls into disrepair — are worth the $197M, why is it such a touchy subject to pay for the building responsibly, with a debt-exclusion override?

I don’t mean to pick on Ted. Ted’s on the right side of the second question and probably the first, too. But, his words provided a nice blog hook.

*They raise a question, not “beg a question.” Begging a question is a technical logical fallacy where one assumes something as evidence that is not yet proved.