Klarinet Archive - Posting 001430.txt from 1998/04

From: "Jason Hsien" <jasonavhs@-----.com>
Subj: Re: budget cutbacks
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 21:10:11 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
|>|But all this is neither here nor there. If profit is the motive for
school
|>|curricula, I'd like to know how much the history department made? Or the
|>|English department? Or mathematics?
|>
|>Around here, different departments fundraise whenever they need money. We
|>usually sell with those mini-catalogs and stuff...
|
|I don't send my kids to school to learn to be door-to-door salespeople! I
|don't like it for band, either, but understand it given music's
|semi-extra-curricular nature. Forcing so-called "academic" departments to
|stoop to begging is reprehensible! Either fund the schools or close them!

This is just MHO, but as long as the schools maintain a standard level of
quality (as the schools in my area have exceeded in consistantly for the
past 20 years, earning county, state, national, and even international
recognition as some of the best schools with the best programs), I don't see
why fundraising for academic and extracurricular activities (such as clubs,
music, and sports) should pose a big problem.

Yes, it doesn't seem right, and I detest going door to door one week, then
selling candy on campus the next, but I'd rather do all that and have a
great school with great academic standards and a large base of
extracurricular and intramural activities, then not do anything and have a
mediocre school that is cut to the barest necessities.

A quote from Mr. Hollands' Opus I'd like to bring up:
"Well, you can cut the arts all you want Gene, but soon, these kids
aren't going to have anything to read or write about"

I agree with this quote and I also understand your standpoint, Bill and
Roger, but I am trying to put up the reasons why it's not that way. It'd be
nice to get full funding from the state, or if Clinton added a couple of
billions into the Department of Education through that new fangled "Balanced
Budget" he set up for us, but quite frankly, those of us who are in public
school or have kids in public school with extracurricular activities should
just be happy that we even have that. I know plenty of high schools that
don't.

Thoughts?
-jason