Amherst College has an endowment of $2.47 billion, owns 1,000 acres of prime real estate in Amherst center, and pays almost no local taxes*. In 2018, Amherst College completed a $242 million makeover of its East Campus.

Meanwhile, since I graduated from Amherst Regional High School in 2015, ARHS students have lost the opportunity to take courses in wood technology, business, auto mechanics, culinary arts, clothing & fashion design, and child development. These classes, which provided crucial life skills and vocational opportunities, fell victim to budget cuts.

This year, our district is facing a million-dollar budget deficit with proposed cuts including art classes at the middle school, dance classes at the high school, outreach to underserved youth from the Amherst Family Center, ELL instruction, and one-on-one support for students with special education plans.

Amherst College should pay its fair share. This is not a pie-in-the-sky idea. In Boston alone, fifteen major universities contribute Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT). Boston University, with an endowment of $2.43 billion, contributed $15.3 million PILOT benefits to Boston in 2020 including $6.3 million in cold hard cash.

President Carolyn Martin, and the Board of Trustees, if you truly believe, as your mission states, in educating students that “engage the world around them, and lead principled lives of consequence” then you would lead by example and reinvest $1 million from your $2.47 billion coffers into our public schools.

*Amherst College pays taxes on some employee homes, and their two businesses: the Inn at Boltwood, and Amherst Golf Course.