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Publication Date: June 22d, 2026

Author: Linda Mussmann

When is enough, enough?

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The Briefing Box:

• The Issue: A new $1.6 million project/building "gift" contrasted against systemic school failures in reading, writing, and math.
• Key Figure: State Assembly member Didi Barrett; critics question if her community outreach is a genuine inquiry or a political stunt.
• The Debate: Taxpayers are demanding a financial and academic audit instead of new building construction.
• The Sentiment: Local voters feel ignored and accuse the school board of creating a "false spectacle" (kayfabe) to mask ongoing failure. </aside>

Linda Mussmann, Current Hudson 4th Ward Supervisor

Linda: When is enough, enough?

Really? One disaster after another when it comes to Hudson City School system. Now a 1.6 million dollar disaster to add on to the bigger problem, that this school has failed and failed again to help kids read, write and do math.

I am wondering what Didi Barrett has to do with this…mess. Is this a political plumb to help or did she really ask how the community feels about our school's failure to educate? Do we need another building or do we need to have the Hudson City School audited? Those of us who pay have little to say. We vote and yet are called fools for asking for accountability and positive results. There are limits to how much failure a community can take.

Politicians and school board be careful, this gift may be the undoing of many things. Kayfabe, is king and the school has created a false spectacle that is beyond belief.*

FOOTNOTES

*kayfabe (n.) /ˈkeɪfeɪb/ In professional wrestling, the convention that staged events, scripted feuds, and fictional personas are presented as real; the maintenance of this illusion. By extension, any tacit agreement to treat an obvious fiction as genuine.

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