Andrew L. Kostin's Blog

On Sunday, February 4, 2007 I wrote the following letter to the City of Stamford Board of Education in response to hearing that as part of the Board of Education’s 1.6 million dollar budget decrease, my school, The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering would lose 3.6 teacher positions, along with one educational assistant. I also learned that AITE would lose $25,000 in equipment and supplies, and $12,000 for recruiting and retaining students. I was so outraged after hearing this that I decided to submit this letter to the Stamford Advocate for publishing in their Letter to the Editor section. A shortened version of the letter was published one week later on Sunday, February 11, 2007; this letter can be found here.

Dear City of Stamford Board of Education members,

My name is Andrew L. Kostin and I am a junior at The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, a public magnet high school in Stamford, CT. It has come to my attention that The City of Stamford Board of Education is involved in determining the budget for next year. I am concerned that our current high quality of education will significantly diminish due to restrictive budgets. From what I understand, The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering’s proposed budget is under review and may be subject to reduction.

I think that The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering should not see a reduction in budget for many reasons. One reason is that at The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering I am given tremendous opportunities that I and many of my fellow pupils take advantage of that are not offered at other high schools. Some of these opportunities include smaller class sizes, a wide array of electives and special events and programs we are able to have such as our internship program/ job shadow field trip program. Last Friday I had the tremendous opportunity to go on one of the many job shadow field trips I have been on. I went to the Holiday Inn in Stamford, CT to spend a day with the Director of Sales and Marketing to learn what it is like to be in corporate sales and if that is something I would be interested in pursuing for a career. This is just one of many job shadow field trips I have been on, last year I went to Thompson Publishing in Stamford and met with there CEO and spent almost an entire day with the Chief Financial Officer of Pitney Bowes just to name a few. Sadly the AITE internship coordinator at our school, Ms. Fran Galasso says that the grant that pays her salary expires this year and she may not be invited back due to budgetary reasons next year. I couldn’t imagine the program being the same with out her.

Another reason I love The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering and the education I get there is because of the excellent course selection options I have. While technology and engineering are the focuses of our school I also have many other elective options at our school including a full music and arts program. Personally my favorite subjects are Business and Finance. I have taken International Business, Corporate Financial Management and E-Commerce at my school. I have reached the end of the course offerings at my school in business and finance outside of accounting and though I can and will continue my business education through our schools Virtual High School program I would like to see expanded offerings in our schools electives, not a decrease due to budgetary reasons.

As hard as it is to believe, I enjoy getting up everyday at about six o’clock in the morning to go to school. I recognize that many of America’s jobs are going overseas to people that have higher educations than many Americans and are willing to work for far less than I am. In my opinion if you, the Board of Education decrease the quality of my education by reducing The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering’s budget you are helping the countries overseas, you are setting me up for failure. You, the Board of Education are only robbing yourself, your future and your fellow Americans by taking someone capable of being the next fortune 100 CEO and saying we are decreasing your school’s funding which may not allow you to continue to take business courses so that the tax payers have a little more green in their pockets.

I hope that through this letter I have been able to persuade you to reconsider any thoughts of decreasing my schools funding. If you have any questions for me I would encourage you to contact me using the information listed below (removed for publication.)

Regards,
Andrew L. Kostin
Junior, The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering