I voted yesterday in our local battle. There was only one thing on the ballot. A yes or no to a budget override for the school district. Because of budget problems at the state level our school district has lost over 1.5 million dollars in funding and has done drastic things like firing all art, music, and pe teachers, making schools share librarians, counselors and nurses, and shorter school days. Now the vote is to cut funding to the schools even more. It makes me so mad. There was a smear campaign saying that this would cost tons of money to everyone and the school district is just irresponsible, etc. But the truth is that this would just ensure that the appropriate tax dollars make it to the schools and it makes education the priority (as it should be).
Anyways. We lost. The schools will suffer even more.
I think there are 2 parties responsible for this. 1 - the retirees. You may think I am stereotyping and am being unfair, but they will vote down funding for the schools every time. The proof was when I went and stood in a very short line to vote I didn't not see a single person there without a significant amount of gray hairs on their head. From the time I got out of my car, till the time we drove off. I was the only person who was not a senior citizen. I had a few pro-override signs in my yard that kept getting pulled up and thrown down. And who is walking their dogs down the sidewalk day and night? Senior citizens. I don't know why they think it will benefit them to have crappy schools.
But who is really responsible? And what is so frustrating about politics? THE PARENTS!!!! Why weren't they at the polls!!! I have heard so many complaints from parents, and the principle sent out a newletter explaining the changes and how they were out of her control because of the complaints she had had. But yet, these parents didn't go out and vote! There were less than 8000 votes total and it was 57% to 41%. I know that doesn't add up and I am not sure how there can be a gray area in a "mark yes or no" vote. I was standing outside with our PTSO president who was trying to catch parents during the parent teachers conferences last week to hand out fliers with override information. He said that at least 70% of the parents had no idea what was going on and didn't want to stop and talk about it. This is for your kids! You need to talk about it! There was one guy who went by and TJ caught him to give a flier and he briefly explained what the whole thing was about. The guy had no idea. He wanted the school to get the programs back and to have regular school days again, but he had no idea. How can you not know!!!!?! There are signs posted on every corner of the city. You can't drive to the grocery store without seeing at least 20 yes or no signs. And the bigger clue... Your kids! You'd think that they would want to know what was going on when so many changes are made at your own kids school. You'd also think that more would get out and vote on an issue that has such a clear, distinct impact on their lives. But no.
After all the signs posted, fliers handed out, phone calls made, speeches given, we still lost. That is frustrating. It just seems like no matter how hard you work people still don't care and there is nothing you can do about it. They want the changes but still won't take the time to go to the polls. It makes me so mad. It just makes it all seem pointless. I hope the community we are moving to has better support for schools and more involvement in government. We'll see.
There is my opinionated rant for the next little while. I should do this more often.
