Taxpayers and parents in Peabody should cheer the school board's decision to accept new students under the school choice program. The $120,000 it hopes to raise by opening 24 seats to students from other communities may take some pressure off the tax rate or allow for improved classroom services, perhaps a little of both.
Some members of the committee were a little hesitant about the proposal, asking administrators whether it might result in overcrowding in the middle of the year or whether the city would be properly reimbursed for those students it accepted.
A more pressing question, in our view, is why some 53 Peabody students have taken advantage of the choice program to attend school in other districts (and that doesn't even include the number attending Catholic and other private schools).
According to Committeeman Ed Charest, who cast the lone dissenting vote, "there is not even a guarantee we would have students that would come in." Now that would be embarrassing.
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