on the public school funding crisis in Saugus, Mass. I think what the superintendant did was pretty amazing for this day and time. And, unfortunately, the response of students and parents is fairly typical.
They are being forced to answer the basic question: Just what are we supposed to spend our education (tax) dollars FOR, anyway?
Look, I'm not anti-sports (heavens, I'm from TEXAS, after all) or anti-cheerleader, band, art club, or student newspaper. But it never hurts once in awhile to think back to basic purposes.
Well, maybe it HURTS, but it is necessary.....
Or if principals were free to hire, fire, and pay teachers on the basis of skill, not seniority?
I still say that teacher's union's greed is one of the top reasons for the sorry state of school funding.
When my local school's budget was cut a long time ago, they had to move to self-sufficiency for all of those 'extras.'
When I was in high school in the Seventies, we went to an austerity budget, in which all extras (except, of course, the Holy Sacrament of Football) were cut from public funding. The Drama Club went independent and raised money for our own production. We chose a play in the public domain (no royalty fee), and I sewed and begged and borrowed and thriftshopped the costumes (total cost for the entire cast, $26). We made a big profit which provided the seed money for all our other productions. Let's see the football team do that.