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To all the tax-choked, budget-voting residents who have not attended board of education meetings and who will be shocked by the high percent increase of the school budget and the huge increase in property taxes, of which the school district budget is a major part, I offer this information.

There are many vocal parent association members, each having a different, personal agenda of expensive items they want included in the budget.

This past year the "F.L.E.S." program, (Foreign Language in the Elementary School) was eliminated because it was expensive and absolutely ineffective according to parents.

Dr. Brenner, our new highly paid administrator of curriculum persuaded the audience and the BOE to restore the FLES program by a presentation, which though articulate, made little sense.

He proposed that instead of one one-half hour per week, there be two one-half hours per week at a ridiculous cost of almost $400,000. That's getting close to half a million dollars for a program that educators with whom I have spoken consider no more effective than the failing one one-half hour per week.

My written proposal to the BOE to which I got no response at all, but which three of the individual BOE members thought was great would cost virtually nothing, but would take a little effort on the part of our highly paid administrators to work out minor details.

My proposal is as follows:

After speaking to parents of elementary school children who would like them to be introduced to Spanish in a positive fun way that would not only give them a grasp of Spanish, but would also be so enjoyable that they would want to learn more and become prepared for more serious academic language courses later, I thought of an enrichment program, "An Introduction to Spanish." This would be a multi-benefits program: benefits which apply to elementary school children to high school students and to taxpaying residents as well as to BOE members concerned with the best education and getting the budget passed.

An enrichment program in Spanish instead of FLES would have benefits that are at least threefold.

This program would be closer to "immersion" in Spanish because it would be five-days-a-week instead of two one-half hours per week and its effectiveness would obviously be greater.

Qualified high school juniors and seniors good in Spanish, perhaps in an Advanced Placement course and/or in the Spanish Language Club, and interested in education can satisfy their community service requirements for graduation and perhaps do an "internship" in education. We need good teachers as well as lawyers, doctors and businessmen. This program, which I believe would certainly be more effective, could be evaluated and would cost the taxpayer virtually nothing by comparison.

Kids who are young (K-6) learn language better in a fun atmosphere from young people who are good role models as well. It would be a type of peer-peer program.

Hearing Spanish daily will give them an "ear" for the language, proper accent and pronunciation, as well as basic vocabulary.

The goal of teaching a foreign language in elementary school is not to say we have a four-letter word program, but to have the most effective program for the children at the least cost to the taxpayers.

Despite the fact that three individual BOE members, parents, educators and Hispanic friends thought it was a great idea, the spend thrift BOE chose to ignore it and chose to budget almost $400,000 for a program which will be no more effective than the one they did away with.

In a perverse way the "out-of-control" spending by this extravagant BOE with its proposed expensive ineffective program and its huge lawyer's fees, with questionable returns, may cause the budget to be defeated, which after all, may not be such a bad idea.