To the Editor:

Shame on this so-called newspaper and website for conducting a survey about where school budget cuts should be made. (The NCNow Survey questions which concluded Monday morning was: “Most schools are expected to make major budget cuts this spring. "What areas do you feel should be cut?"

What could possibly qualify anyone at North Country Now to attack education and teachers since that is ultimately what your survey is underscoring? I would imagine every North Country school is wrestling with the difficult task of how to prepare their budget, make cuts, keep taxes at reasonable levels and save programs for students. 

Every school district has qualified people to make these difficult decisions.  Your survey raises many questions that beg to be answered.  First, what use is this survey to anyone?

The only possible purpose is to just agitate, and promote the same old tired myths that are perpetuated by people who don't understand teaching, education and the budget process. 

Secondly, what will be done with this survey? Who is really going to be interested in the results?

Thirdly, what qualifies anyone at your business to indulge themselves in the area of education and budget?  Are any of you at North Country Now former educators, or have any of you had any experience in education beyond you were once a student? 

Promoting more strife and agitation will not solve anything except to maybe draw attention to your publication.  If attention is what you need, perhaps you have more serious problems and need to survey what is wrong with is the real purpose of your business. 

You are simply jumping on the bandwagon that seems to be quite popular right now which is to attack education as the root of the fiscal problems in New York State.

I sure hope none of your employees have spouses who might be in education.  If there are any I hope their spouses never become the victims of layoffs, salary cuts, etc.

I wonder if any of your employees will vote on your survey to cut staff, cut staff salaries, cut staff benefits? If there any employees who might do so would this not be like biting the hand that is feeding them?   Some people need to think before they act. Perhaps a survey should be conducted in the north country as to what newspapers, websites to get rid of and get rid of those that serve little function in terms of real news reporting and only serve to be a vehicle of advertising. 

Unfortunately to do such survey would make all of us like you.  We would be involving ourselves in something that perhaps we have very little knowledge about yet professing to be all knowing.

I wonder how many educators read your website and publication each week?  How many might do business with you?  North Country Now really has acted in an extremely irresponsible way with this survey. 

Who got you to where you are in your careers?  I don't suppose you had any dedicated educators to help you along the way or maybe one doesn't need much education to work for North Country Now. 

Good luck with your survey and I hope your misguided intentions are fulfilled.  Must be it was a slow news week so you decided to stir the pot with a meaningless survey.

Yes, I am in education and proud of it!

Mark C. Blanchard, Morristown