PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1985. WIITBY FREE PRESS h aPublished e very wen'NIesdIay whitbyMICHAEL KNELL b MI.NIM. Publishing Community Editor WIS e j iiiandid Ph>otography IMnc The Free Press Building, a 131 11rock Street North, SecodClass Mal Voice of the County Town Michael Ian Burgess, Publisher - Managing Editor P.O . ox 20 whitby, Ont. Regstraion No 5351 The only Whitby newspapcr independently owneit and îperated b Whitby iesidents for Wlcitoy residents. Dryden's comments make us wonder if we are getting our money's worth In light of the property tax increase recently stantially more than the 7.4 per cent imposed by staggering amount, but when one considers th levied by the Durham Board of Education, Whitby the board. remarks made recently by the Ontario Yout residents should be truly grateful that the town's Treasurer AI Claringbold noted in his report to Commissioner, we have to wonder whether or n assessment growth was as high as it was last Whitby Town Councl Monday night that the thismoneyisbeingspentproperly. year. board's total requisition on the municipality was Ken Dryden told the Whitby Chamber of CorT If Whitby had not been a leader in both residen- 13.9 per cent higher than t was ast year. It went merce earlier this year that if one examines tial and industrial development in 1984, our from $11,083,460 to $12,630,667. For the average groupof20grade9studentsentering hlgh schoc education property taxes would have risen sub- Whitby resident, whose home is assessed at in this province, only one will graduate fror board'srsitylandqunsition oromhcommuncipacityegas I U à rrFOR GLO&BAL NEWB l Ten years ago this month I was in Saigon. On the streets life appeared to be normal. The news was censored for one thing, so the average citizen couldn't be sure how bad it was. Construction continued, the black market thrived, and an Indian tailor on Tudo Street said he'd be making safari jackets there long after I had gone. I hoped he was right, on both counts. Senior government and military officiais knew it was time to get out, and some of them did, with all the hard currency and jewelry they could cram in- to flight bags. Those who were street smart knew it was time to leave and the airport was jammed with painted ladies and Gucci accessories. Others knew the jig was up, but stayed to fight. We did a story in Zuan Loc, which by then was the most distant outpost of Saigon. I met a Colonel there, a province chief, who had a daughter in Canada. He asked me to take a letter to her because he knew that where he was going there would be no post office. The commander of the garrison was a little ban- tam rooster, spit and polish and full of bluster. He fought, but he didn't last long. Zuan Loc was cut off two days later, and when we tried to return, the North Vietnamese mortared us for our trouble. I knew Saigon was going to fall. I only hoped it would be after we'd gone. It was obvious even to us that the situation was hopeless, and we didn't know the half of it. Years later, in Don Mills, reading a CIA agent's account of the last days of Saigon, and consulting my own notes, I realized that in our daily quests for fire tights, we had flanked major segments of the North Vietnamese Army more than once. At night, In the old Majestic Hotel, I lay sleepless in the hot, damp dark, with the ceiling fan swishing slowly overhead, listening to the drone of aircraft engines and waiting for the bomb. As it happened, the Majestic got its top stories blown off a couple of days after l'd gone. When I came home, I sent the letter to the Colonel's daughter in Montreal. I met her, even- tually, in Toronto. The colonel had survived the fall of Zuan Loc and was in a re-education camp. We tried to get him out, with no luck. I bought a piece of land in the country, and we built a house on it that we couldn't afford, because after Vietnam I knew what was important, and what wasn't. $5,000 this translates into the aforementioned 7.4 per cent increase - from $623 last year to $669 in 1985. And the only reason the taxpayer isn't picking up the entire 13.9 per cent increase is our assessment growth. We've said it time and time again - we don't un- derstand how the Durham Board of Education can levy such high tax increases compared to those levied by Whitby Town Council and Durham Regional Council. This year, the town didn't levy a tax increase at ail while that levied by regional council amounted to just under four percent. In terms of actual dollars, the board's increase is over four times that imposed by the other two levels of local government. This newspaper was also interested to note that some board members had been predicting school tax increases in the area of 18 per cent this year a few weeks ago. Are we supposed to be grateful that the increase is now only 7.4 per cent? On many other occasions, we have noted that the Durham Board of Education lives in the same economic environment as do both Whitby Town Council and Durham Regional Council and yet the board doesn't seem to be able to cope as well as they. The Durham board will spend something in the area of $166 million this fiscal year to educate our children. Everyone will agree that this is a e h ot '- a ol m >1 university and only two from community college. He also told the chamber that only 12 will graduate f rom grade 12. What this means in essence is that the school system is only giving three out of every 20 grade 9 students the incentive to go on to higher education where they stand the greatest chance of acquiring job skills. Dryden also noted that of the students that leave school early, most end up in no-where jobs, earning low wages. Some will eventually end up on welfare becoming a burden on the rest of society. As far as this newspaper is concerned, Dryden's message is clear. We are not providing our children with the appreciation for learning needed to acquire job skills that will make them produc- tive members of our community. When one examines this Information in light of the board of education's budget, one has to won- der what this money is being spent on. It is ail well and good for the board to say that over 80 per cent of its budget is devoted to salaries. If that is the case, one has to also wonder about the quality of education in the classroom. The taxpayers have a right to expect that their children receive the best possible education at the best possible price. From what the youth commissioner said, we can only surmise that we're not getting It. c -----o A. -A vour RO< AVE (N I IvNP, Gerry's bubble