We downsized from Lexington to Harvard in the last few months, only to enter a hurricane of discussion on the subject of how to renew the Hildreth Elementary School. During the years that we were raising our two, now grown, children with the assistance of the Lexington public schools, there were several townwide decisions on whether or not to repair, replace, and/or upgrade parts of the school system. Though there was debate about cost, always the citizenry recognized the current and future importance of our extraordinary school system. The primary argument that we recall, the one we now hear in Harvard, was about the connection between higher property taxes and higher property values. All the school improvements in our Lexington years brought both, yet time has shown that people continue to move to Lexington because of its schools, plain and simple.
Harvard seemed to us to value its public education similarly, which was a factor in our decision to move here. Remarkably, the argument we’ve heard here regarding expected property values in the wake of building a new elementary school is that, in building the new school, the associated rise in property taxes will force residents out of Harvard, resulting in a surfeit of housing, driving down property values. We can attest that this doesn’t happen. Continued great schools will attract families to Harvard, increasing competition for housing stock and raising property values. Anyone saying that young families who are intent on the finest education for their children cannot afford to move to Harvard simply hasn’t checked the very competitive, and high-priced, housing market in many communities inside 495, Lexington among them. To preserve our property values here in Harvard, we’ll be voting to build the new Hildreth School.
Stepping back a bit, I’d like to give a big shoutout to the Harvard Press. In this era of “fake news,” finding a source of curated information is not easy. Nextdoor Harvard is a popular “news and opinion” source with, of course, no fact-checking. People who post there are able to assert “alternative facts,” and their readers have no idea what is true and what is opinion. The Press provides an extremely valuable service in vetting the statements of its letter writers and responding in italics just beneath their submissions. A free press is only as valuable as its ability to seek out and announce the truth. In our wired world, gaining attention is too easy, and it isn’t as easy to sift truth from falsehood. Just sayin’. Subscribe to the Press.
Richard Jenson
Mill Road
