MInority group of taxpayers trying to rule high school district

I feel compelled to respond to a recent letter in your paper, penned by David Sorin of Marlboro. While I found much of his opinion contentious, that which most disturbed me was his manipulation of the Freehold Regional High School District tax contribution numbers.

This is nothing more than a shameful attempt to inflame and promote discord and dissension among the sending towns.

What do Mr. Sorin and, by extension, Marlboro and Manalapan hope to gain from this manipulation of numbers, other than to demonstrate that Marlboro and Manalapan have greater comparative wealth than Howell? How will it get them additional seats in their schools?

The answer is frighteningly simple: by attempting to manipulate the regional system into one which is biased toward and would be controlled by those with the most wealth; a district which would forgo all semblances of operating in a democratic fashion.

Well, I, too, can spin the same financial, student enrollment and census data to present quite a different picture.

The Marlboro and Manalapan children comprise 44 percent of the district population while contributing virtually the same percentage of tax dollars (45 percent) to the district.

Dollar for dollar, Howell (62.8 cents) and Colts Neck (63.6 cents) make nearly the same contribution per $100 of assessed valuation. Howell is second only to Marlboro in overall tax con-tributions to the FRHSD for the coming year.

Manalapan and Marlboro have a combined census of 63,000. The remaining six towns have a combined census of 107,000.

Translated into percentages, that is a 38 percent minority of regional taxpayers attempting to control or destroy the school system of the other 62 percent majority regional taxpayers.

One final note. I would venture to guess that less than a generation ago, before the trickle of newcomers to Marlboro and Manalapan, looking for affordable homes, became the flood it is today, these burgeoning communities were being bolstered by the comparative wealth of the surrounding towns in the FRHSD.

Now that Marlboro and Man-alapan have become more affluent, they denigrate those communities and attempt to destroy a school system that welcomed them just a few short years ago and which continues to educate their children so well.

Brian O’Connell

Howell