Why Educating Our Young People Is So Important
For 32 years my wife Robin and I lived in North Salem, NY – right across the border. We got there by chance. When you don’t have children – in our case due to medical issues – meeting people and finding community is hard. But we did have a horse that we boarded in the last private stable in Manhattan. When he developed allergies, we (and our horse!) moved to North Salem, a community where it was easy to make friends based on mutual interests – that being horses.
As we got older, and horses were no longer a fixture in our lives, we wanted to belong to a bigger, more diverse community. We always considered Ridgefield “Our Town.” We always came here to shop and to go to restaurants and cultural events. Moving here two years ago was a no brainer.
Besides the culture and welcoming town, Ridgefield offered us something else that was hugely important to us. A community that values and prioritizes a quality education for its young people.
When we couldn’t have children of our own, both of us decided to devote our time and energy to one-on-one mentoring, volunteering and philanthropic endeavors involving young people.
Robin guest lectures about branding and advertising at NYU, FIT, Baruch College, Columbia University and Savannah College of Art and Design. She mentors college students who intern with her on real-world projects they can include in their portfolios and on their CVs. This summer, she mentored a recent Ridgefield graduate.
Beginning in 2005, I served as an advisor to the “new” North Salem Superintendent of Schools (formerly the Ridgefield Superintendent). We built a new budget, ground up, line item by line item. I remained on the Fiscal Advisory Committee for 12 years and was on the Facilities Committee for two years. I was chairman of a charter school in Waterbury for four years serving underprivileged Black and Latino children. I was so taken with my education-related work that I went back to school at Teachers College at Columbia University, graduating in 2014 with a master’s in education policy.
We both believe that you judge a society – or a town – by how it treats its children. We believe that all of us collectively have a responsibility to provide all the children in our community with the best education possible in a fiscally responsible manner.
Ridgefield does just that!
Our Public Schools in Ridgefield Provide Great Value for the Buck
First, let’s talk about rankings and reviews of school districts in Connecticut. As reported in CT Insider, Niche Best Schools has ranked the Ridgefield School District as the 5th best school district (out of 120 ranked) in CT as well as the 5th best district in Fairfield County, trailing only New Canaan, Westport, Wilton and Darien in both rankings. Nice company! Niche ranked Ridgefield as the #123 Best School District in America out of 10,561 districts reviewed. Really impressive! #7 for Best Teachers in CT, #5 for Best Athletics in CT, #10 for Best Place to Teach in CT, and #6 for Best Place to Teach in Fairfield County. Wow!
US News and World Report ranks (2025-2026) Ridgefield High School as the 12th best high school in CT and #511 nationally. Nearly 18,000 schools were ranked on six factors based on their performance on state assessments and how well they prepare students for college. That puts us in the top 3% nationally. Nothing to sneer at!
Look, if we had our druthers, nobody would pay any taxes. But as they say – there is no such thing as a free lunch. In every town in Connecticut, the costs for schools and educating our children are by far the largest portion of town budgets.
Ridgefield offers a great value proposition. Using the most recent costs per student data from Niche for our peer group, Darien spent $26,157 per student, Wilton spent $26,261, New Canaan spent $26,315 and Westport spent $28,000. Our town, Ridgefield spent $26,040. More bang for our bucks!
In summary, I believe educating the next generation of children, individually, and as a town, collectively, is one of the most important obligations of all citizens in our town, state and country – whether or not they’re your children or your neighbor’s children, or if your children are grown up, or even if you have no children of your own. Our town should make sure the monies spent educating our kids are spent wisely. Why? Because these kids are our future. Robin and I are personally excited to support the four Democratic candidates for the BOE. Because we know they will advocate for Ridgefield Public Schools wisely and responsibly.
Andy Sternlieb is running for Board of Assessment Appeals.