Scene: last Friday, after school.
Bear: Mom! There's going to be a budget meeting at the school on Monday, and you have to go because they might cut band. Will you go?
Me: Of course. I was planning on going anyway.
Bug: I heard that there won't be any more sports or Stretch (gifted) classes and they're going to fire a bunch of teachers.
Bear: My art teacher said that they're going to start by cutting all the fine arts programs. He said that artists are always the first to get fired when the economy tanks.
Bug: Student X told me that there will be 30 kids in every class next year.
Me: Let's not get crazy. There are a lot of rumors flying around right now, and we don't know if any of this is true, which is why Dad and I are going to the meeting. We don't have any facts yet.
Bug (frustrated): I just wish I could tell everyone about my idea, and then we wouldn't be having this problem.
Me: Which idea is that?
Bug: You know, where the whole world agrees to get rid of money and just help each other out to be nice.
6 comments:
OMG, a voice of reason! Bug, too, but I was thinking of you. The rumor mill around schools and parents and teachers can be brutal. In my experience, no one ever lacks an opinion that they are willing to pass off as fact. Some of the questions I used to get would make your head explode.
Sweet bug!
Music and art are always the first to go. At our school, they are funded through parent fundraising so as long as we raise enough money...
Pink slipped teachers, bigger classes, split classes...we're hearing all that too.
Oh, I would so like to live in her world!
Not having kids in school anymore, I tend to just listen in passing. But today, I saw a headline that said in an effort to save money, some school districts would go to 4 day school weeks.
I'm sorry, I just don't see how that is going to help. It's bad enough they've cut funding to all things that help our children be creative. Then they can half the teachers and double the amount of students for the ones who are left. And now only 4 days a week? How does anyone expect children to learn like this?!
The future is scary when you think about how undereducated the population will be in 40 years.
Sorry. Big soap box for me.
Smart girl, that bug.
They have taken 4 more days off the school calendar here, the teachers have agreed to some cuts, some classes have been combined or dropped and the parents are being asked to pay $150 per family. Our district was in the black until this year, so we are not as bad as many districts.
I want to elect HIM!
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