I favor speaking up for the voiceless, but public words defending others who would remain off-stage have to tell a more complete story than they do in the case of paying $3,000 in annual fees for all-day kindergarten.

Arlington resident Stephen Harrington, who has spoken persistently in the past in a successful effort to reduce fees for high school athletics, uses similar arguments about kindergarten fees, but the math stands up only because the tale is incomplete.

During public participation Jan. 26, he told the School Committee that the cost of full-day kindergarten is "ludicrous," should be lower, amounts to an illegal tax and efforts to collect it are "heavy-handed." His comments, to which committee members made no response, as per their policy, came as parents who have not paid the fee face having their children dismissed at 11 a.m. starting Jan. 30. 

Harrington concludes that parents have overpaid more than $400,000 in each of the past two years for such fees. I wanted to learn how he reached that number, so I requested a copy of his comments Jan. 27. He has not responded. If he does, I will add a link to the response to this opinion column.