City backs horse trails, not education

As I conclude by 13th year as a student in the Las Virgenes Unified School District and my 17th year as a resident of Agoura Hills, I am saddened and personally offended by my city’s priorities or lack there of.

But it is hard to blame our city council members, as they are following suit with their role model, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who chose to make public education a low priority. Because of his broken promise, all school districts, including ours, face difficult fiscal situations and need additional support from the community and local cities.

Agoura Hills has the perfect opportunity to lead by example, setting the education priority high and asking other cities to join with them in a regional funding program which will directly impact the classrooms to ensure that LVUSD has the resources to maintain its high quality education.

But instead of reserving a small portion of the city’s budget— $100,000 per year for three years— for education, our elected officials voted last Wednesday to spend $500,000 to build additional horse trails in Old Agoura. It’s difficult for me to understand why the recreational facilities of a relatively small group of residents are the city’s financial responsibility.

When I want to go swimming, I don’t ask the city to pay for the construction or upkeep of my swimming pool.

This is a direct insult to me and my more than 13,000 peers served by LVUSD. Your votes indicate that we, the children of your city, are worth less than the horses. At the meeting, it was stated in a recent survey of Agoura citizens that their number two priority was education, preceded only by traffic. The city is spending tens of millions of dollars to redesign the Kanan and Reyes Adobe freeway exits to address the number one concern of its residents, but refuses to reserve a dime in the budget for textbooks, smaller classes or student support.

Thanks, Mayor Corridori and Councilmembers Reinhardt and Kuperberg. I’ll be 18 in August and voting in November, along with my graduating class of 489 students, their families and neighbors. Mayor Pro Tem Weber and Councilmember Edelston, I truly appreciate your unwavering commitment to excellence in education.

Sammy Averbach Agoura Hills