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Jason Andersen is a Bangor resident, husband, and father of five. He works in the facilities management industry, focused on maintaining safe, reliable, and well‑run buildings that support the people and organizations who rely on them every day.
The news about Fairmount School hit Bangor like a bucket of cold water. Discovering asbestos and serious structural failures in a building that has served families since 1919 isn’t just a maintenance problem — it’s a wake‑up call. When a century‑old school reaches its breaking point, we need to stop asking what new schools will cost and start asking what it is costing us not to build them.
For too long, our conversation about school funding has been stuck in a defensive crouch, yielding to the familiar refrain of “we can’t afford higher taxes.” We talk about “tax burdens” as if money vanishes once it leaves our checkbooks, and as if all public spending is equally useless. It isn’t. School investment follows very different economics — and I think those economics tell a clear story: Strong schools are not the cause of high taxes; they are one of the few proven ways to stabilize and ultimately lower the burden over time.
Most school funding doesn’t leave town. It stays here, circulating through Bangor again and again. It becomes payroll for teachers and staff, contracts for local businesses, and steady work for tradespeople. That money buys groceries, pays rent and mortgages, and returns in the form of sales and property taxes. Economists call this “captured capital,” but in real terms it’s what keeps local shops open, service providers busy, and neighborhoods functioning. Every dollar invested creates multiple dollars of economic activity right where we live.
The larger return, however, comes from what strong schools do for our tax base. The math is simple: The only sustainable way to reduce the individual tax burden is to expand the number of people and businesses paying into the system. Cities that attract employers and high‑earning professionals can spread costs more broadly. Cities with crumbling schools cannot.
Families with options do not move to places where schools are unsafe, outdated, or routinely closed for emergencies. Businesses don’t follow them. When we allow our schools to decay, we are effectively posting a neon “Keep Out” sign for the very people Bangor needs to attract if we want a healthier tax balance.
We see the consequences in healthcare. Bangor regularly struggles to attract doctors and specialists. That challenge isn’t separate from our school facilities. Today’s professionals can choose where to live. They likely will not relocate their families to a city where the elementary school is held together by temporary fixes and hope. Underfunded schools can choke the talent pipeline that sustains our hospitals and limits the commercial growth that could help shoulder the tax load.
Delaying action only accelerates a downward spiral. Expensive renovations and stopgap repairs for 100‑year‑old buildings may feel cheaper in the moment, but I fear they are a trap. Every emergency repair dollar yields almost no return. It is money spent simply to keep failing structures limping along. It drains today’s budget while sacrificing tomorrow’s value.
New schools can offer one of the highest returns on investment a community can make. They signal stability, growth, and confidence. They attract families, employers, and professionals who broaden the tax base rather than concentrating the burden on homeowners who remain because they have no other option. Neglect produces the opposite: a shrinking base, rising pressure on residents, and fewer choices each year.
Bangor’s elected officials and school committee are at a crossroads. We should give them the mandate to be bold. “Saving money” by delaying construction is an illusion — it quietly drives away growth and makes the city less affordable over time. I believe investing in new schools now is not reckless spending; it is the only realistic path to a stable, prosperous future.
Let’s not wait for the next school to close its doors before we decide to build what Bangor needs to thrive.
