[Assam] Nobel champion cannot sleep: kids' schooling vs property taxes

Wed Oct 3 01:11:32 CDT 2007

He studied at a high school near my current home.

Umesh

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/18/a_nobel_champion_enters_fray/

A Nobel champion enters fray Prize-winner adds voice, resources to town's running debate over taxes     By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff  |  March 18, 2007
    Craig Mello can't sleep.
The man who won the Nobel Prize in medicine last fall has a new problem on his mind: How he can persuade enough of his fellow Shrewsbury residents to support a tax increase for the town's schools.
He could donate some of his $700,000 in Nobel Prize money to help close the budget gap. Or he could send his four children to private schools, pulling them out of the ailing school system. But those are quick fixes, and Mello likes long-term solutions, even if it keeps him up at night.
"It's always happened to me," he said of his insomnia. "But a lot more lately."
That's because Shrewsbury's budget woes have reached a critical point. Programs have been cut in recent years and dozens of teachers have been laid off. The police, fire, and parks departments are also understaffed.
The University of Massachusetts Medical School researcher has bestowed his considerable prestige -- not to mention $10,000 of his prize winnings -- to the campaign for a Proposition 2 1/2 override that would raise property taxes. He turns down dozens of national and international speaking engagements, but has been a regular presence in recent months at Board of Selectmen's meetings. And when he's not in places like Palm Beach, Fla., courting millionaire benefactors for research money, he's at the Shrewsbury Public Library meeting with other override supporters.
"I need to get this message out," Mello said. "We need to plan for the future."
Tomorrow night, selectmen are expected to vote on placing a tax override on the May 1 ballot. Mello plans to be there.
Not exactly politics as usual in this town of 33,000, where typically only a third of the voters turn out for local elections.
John Lebeaux,   chairman of the Board of Selectmen, credits Mello with energizing the debate.
"I think it's created buzz," Lebeaux said. "But with all due respect, his Nobel was in medicine, it wasn't municipal finance. This is a political question."
For Mello, investing in education is a no-brainer. Today's adults are already handing the next generation big problems, such as global warming, he said. People mistakenly think science will be able to fix things without making sacrifices.
At a recent selectmen's meeting, he gave each member a copy of "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed," a book by Jared Diamond that Mello calls a must-read.
"People need to start thinking bigger," he said in an interview at his home. "Tens of thousands of people are dying every year from diseases we could treat or prevent."
Mello, 46, has wide-ranging opinions on national politics ("heartbroken" by the 2000 vote recount in Florida), the environment ("can you believe oceans are fished out?"), and the war (Sept. 11, 2001, gave the White House an excuse to invade Iraq). He has won dozens of awards for research, but unlike many of his colleagues who turn down corporate money, he accepts it and donates it to his pet causes. One of his favorites is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, because his youngest daughter has the disease.

Mello grew up on a Christmas tree farm outside Washington, D.C. His father was a paleontologist at the Smithsonian Institution. He attended public schools, graduating from Fairfax County High School in 1978. Mitchell Sutterfield, the school's principal, taught there when Mello was a student, and he describes Fairfax County High as one of the first "mega-schools" in the country. Spread out over 9 rolling acres, it has huge athletic fields, an auditorium for 1,200 and an affluent student body. Last year, the school's budget was $2.2 million.

More than 6 feet tall in high school, Mello ran track, played football, and wrestled. He counts as one of his most important mentors his wrestling coach, now deceased, who also taught him biology. Like his parents, Mello attended Brown University.
Mello received his doctorate from Harvard and did postdoctoral work at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He moved to Shrewsbury nearly 14 years ago after taking a job as a professor of molecular medicine at UMass Medical in Worcester, where he oversees about 40 graduate and postdoctoral students.
He owes his Nobel in part to worms so small they can be seen only with a microscope. With his research partner, Stanford University professor Andrew Z. Fire, Mello discovered a way to turn off individual genes in the worm's cells. The technique, called "RNA interference," transformed how biology and diseases such as Alzheimer's and HIV are studied. The Nobel committee called it a landmark discovery that "led to an explosion in research all over the world."
The medal bestowed by the Nobel committee in Sweden remains under lock and key at UMass, not at his Shrewsbury home.
Approachable as ever Two years ago, Mello moved to one of the town's wealthiest subdivisions, on a former dairy farm. He laments that all traces of the dairy operation are gone. Now huge two- and three-story homes surround wetlands.
Visiting his home on a Saturday morning, it was hard to imagine him as the guest of honor at dinners for 2,000. His shirt was untucked, his cuffs unbuttoned.
He has a thoughtful, down-to-earth demeanor. He's so approachable that janitors at UMass went up to him to offer their congratulations. So do strangers at the supermarket in Shrewsbury, which is home to many university doctors and researchers.
Several administrators help him manage his schedule, and he turns down at least two dozen national and international speaking requests a month.
"I have to really work on saying no," he said.
And he said he sometimes feels guilty, knowing his discovery wouldn't have been possible without the work of other researchers who paved the way.
"You feel all this sense of responsibility to make something of it, to make a difference," he said of the prize

Edith Mello said she and her husband agreed to use some of the prize money to help improve the schools. Both were "very, very, very" concerned about teacher cuts, especially at the high school. In 2005 alone, the schools eliminated 30 positions, including 13 teachers, when residents voted against an override.

Students have been unable to get into Advanced Placement classes, some winding up with free periods instead of the challenging courses seen as key to acceptance at top colleges. Coaches have had to cut back rosters. Students pay fees to participate in sports and to take the bus. Early-morning music classes at the high school no longer are free.
Mello said he became involved in the issue last fall, before he won the Nobel. Watching his daughter's soccer team, he was handed a flier from a group supporting the override, Citizens for a Better Shrewsbury. He noted the number and called in offering to help.
He attends the group's meetings at the library, juggling the Shrewsbury campaign with his lab work and increased travel demands since his Nobel win. He will address a fund-raiser for YES4Shrewsbury on Thursday night; next week he'll be halfway around the world speaking to the Chinese Academy of Science.
A bumper sticker on the back of his family SUV reads, "I may be wrong... but I doubt it."
The challengeShrewsbury voters in 2004 and 2005 rejected calls for tax increases by 2-1 ratios. The second defeat prompted the school superintendent, Anthony Bent, to say that asking voters to approve an override was "like asking them to put their hand in boiling water."
Benjamin Tartaglia, a founder of a group opposing the override, Seniors for Responsible Taxation, said his group wants the schools and other town departments to "live within their means."
He is undaunted by Mello's big name, praises him for getting involved, but still predicts another override trouncing.
"I'll be surprised if it's even close," Tartaglia said
On the other side of the battle is Judy Vedder, who chairs YES4Shrewsbury.
"Thank God for Craig Mello," Vedder said of his backing for the override, which last year failed to muster enough support to get on the ballot. The Mellos' contribution will pay for mailings to 13,000 households, Vedder said.
The Nobel laureate has also contacted booster clubs, the Rotary, and other community groups offering to speak on the issue. But the man who is in demand as a speaker worldwide said none of the local groups has responded.
Mello recently offered to give the town $30,000 to create a municipal fund to help any residents who experience financial hardship as a result of a property tax increase. He doesn't think it would be a burden for many.
"Most people already think our taxes are low, absurdly low," compared with other towns, he said.
On the recent Saturday, after picking up his daughter from a birthday party, Mello said he couldn't predict how the vote would go. But he is prepared to lobby every opponent.
"I want to know every single reason, every single change, every single way it  would negatively impact members of the town."
It's not the first time Mello has faced long odds in reaching a goal. His brother, Roger, said he had to review slides displaying more than a million tiny worms to find the change that led to his breakthrough discovery.
"He found the changed worm in the last 50," Roger Mello said. "That's just dogged perseverance."
Megan Woolhouse can be reached at mwoolhouse at globe.com. 
 © Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

Umesh Sharma

Washington D.C. 

1-202-215-4328 [Cell]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)

www.gse.harvard.edu/iep  (where the above 2 are used )

http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/

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