This has nothing to do with our diet/exercise report and Hailey, you're probably gonna hate it...but I need to rant!
Well I went into the High School today because I needed to talk to Mr. Bennett about a letter of recommendation and I needed Brenda to mail a couple transcripts for me. Anyway, when I was talking to Mr. Bennett, the topic of the new proposed levy came up. The levy is proposed by the Fremont School District and they're asking for $600,000. Governor Otter has made a bunch of funding cuts to education (and we started to hear a bit about it last year) and that's why the school district is having such a hard time with money. (And it's about to get worse because Otter just announced he's cutting $40 million more from education). Anyway so this levy for 600 grand is pretty much so the high school can keep their extra-curricular activities. So if this thing does pass (on Feb. 2nd), then ALL extra-curricular activities will be cut! Gone! DESTROYED! That includes band, debate, all the little clubs, and yes! you guessed it!.....SPORTS!
Well there was a levy similar to this one two years ago that the district tried to pass...but guess what? Nope. It didn't. And it's mainly for two reasons. 1) People don't know about it. (All the community knows is that there is a levy asking for money and it will increase property tax). And 2) All of the people that live in Island Park will multi-million dollar homes are greedy and don't care at all about the community they live in (okay that was pretty harsh, but I mean come on?! The property tax would increase $50 at the most for high end homes for 2 years! That means TWICE! And if you've ever read the Island Park newspaper and read what they have to say about the levy....it's pretty damn frustrating!)
So it really all comes down to one thing...people are ignorant. As my dad puts it, "Half these people don't even know how to read!" Ha, that's pretty extreme, but he has a point. I don't think half the people in our community understand how much NOT passing something like this is going to affect everybody. Think about it...no extra-curricular activities? Parents who are big donators to the community will be packing up and leaving to give their kids a better education. Kids who love sports and academic activities and depend on them to get into college are going to transfer to other schools. Essentially, the town will go bankrupt.
Oh yeah, did I mention that the teachers will be leaving too? Well I kind of have inside information (my dad is pretty tight with some of the teachers!) and there is a very good chunk of teachers who are leaving at the end of this year because they've received too many pay cuts (a small amount of the levy money would be going to teachers as well) and haven't had raises in years..oh and they've had their retirement fund dipped into. Well think about how many teachers at SF that are coaches as well. Almost all of them! Coaching pays money too....so without that second part of their income, a lot of these teachers will either be looking for a second job or they could go the easy way and just move somewhere where they're treated better.
I know I don't go to SF anymore, but this really just upsets me. I've always really loved St.A and South Fremont, and I can easily see this place going down the drain pretty soon. And it's not like this everywhere. Maybe in Idaho, but other states don't pay their teachers as low as Idaho does. Other states are receiving budget cuts to education, but not like Idaho. I'm just sad :(
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