A visit to the Brunswick School Department office to obtain a copy of the contract for the next three years resulted in the reply that it was unavailable but the numbers have been included in the proposed budget approved by the Town Council.

In the past, the salary schedule for those coming under the purview of the teacher’s union contract have included increases of between 3.5 percent and 5 percent, depending on how generous the union negotiators think they can be with the taxpayer’s money.

They foster this generosity with the myth of how underpaid and overworked the teachers are. We know also that these increases are not for performance because they are given to everyone, based totally on seniority. We also know statistically and by any other non-subjective measure that throwing more money at education has not produced a better product. A simile would be if you want transportation in the form of an automobile, all you need are four wheels with brakes, a steering wheel, an engine and enclosure and frame to hold it all together. Adding a radio, white walls, air conditioning and a moon roof increases only the cost not its utility.

Examining the department’s proposed budget, one finds that total salary and benefits are being increased by $560,000 — and this does not include the amount necessary to fund pension benefits that are included in the state’s budget and paid for by other taxes. The number of students covered by this budget in 2015 is 2,294, compared with 2,343 in 2014 and 2,391 in 2013, a number that has been consistently reducing as the Maine population grows older and greatly accelerated when the Brunswick Naval Air Station closed.

For those who paid attention, this latter anomaly put a lie to the myth and exposed the fact the teachers were not underpaid and overworked. The proof of the latter is that history has demonstrated that even professionals that sell a service reach their peak output after about five years. In other words, every teacher in the Brunswick schools could be replaced for a salary of about $36,500, the current base salary for a teacher with five years’ experience. The actual current average is over twice that.

Needless to say, their output would result in no differences because the replacements would satisfy the requirements of the position and therefore produce the same results. The proof is that homeschooled children fare no better or worse than those exiting the public schools and their teachers make nothing.

If you wish this charade to continue and your property taxes to increase every year I urge you to vote for the school budget on June 9.

You can bet that the department’s employees and parents who are getting a free ride on your dime will.

Fred Blanchard Brunswick