What about the Schools?

As the schools and universities in my great State of California continue to lose funding, it seems ridiculous that grown ups have no problems paying hundreds of dollars to see sporting events yet balk at any new taxes (parcel, income, etc.) which would be a few hundred per year.

After having been around for nearly a half decade and with grammar school kids, I really worry about how our country prioritizes its needs. My kids are luckily in a pretty good school district that can draw upon outside funding sources (we have two "funds" that we contribute to per child; science and arts fund, PTA fund). What I worry about are the districts that cannot meet the same. I read today that some districts in other states are looking at teacher furloughs.

This is just disappointing; given the amount of disposable income in this country.

 

This question is asked every time there is funding for a new project, a TIF or some sort of property-tax giveaway to a new employer.

The answer is just about always: Fuck the Schools.

 

Taxpayers don't get to choose to not pay taxes when government mismanages money.

Fans get to choose if they want to pay for seats, souvenirs, parking if their team mismanages money, or personnel.

 

When I was in college, I had to write a story about how the state of Kansas cut a lot of the funding for its regents schools and gave a bunch to K-12 schools, so that's why every college kid in the state was having their tuition jacked up.

Really, schools should be a priority for governments. They shouldn't be putting a bunch of money into something frivolous when the kids are the ones suffering.

I think the worst part is the schools that threaten to or actually cut the arts programs (art, drama, music, etc.) but insist on having middle school sports and crap. Seventh graders do not need to play sports and I hate it when they cut funding to something academic for the sake of something that they don't really need. All kids don't play sports and when they cut the arts programs in school, they're getting the shaft just so some 13-year-old can play a sport that he should be waiting a year or two to play anyway.

(No...they didn't threaten to cut the drama department when I was in high school to make room for sixth grade wrestling at all........)

 

Except that the when the team mismanages money (or doesn't), the fans still pay.

I remember in Cleveland Richard Jacobs claiming he needed more city funding to cover capital costs, as per his tax deal. This was at a time when the Indians sold out every game. Turned out some of the stuff Jacobs noted as "capital" costs were things like light bulbs. These owners didn't get scads of money worry about whether little schoolchildren had desks or teachers.