FUSD Budget Override Hell YES!!!!!!

I know I'm a snob when it comes to education. I went to one of the best highschools in the entire country and got a free, although priceless, education at the above school. University Highschool in Urbana, Illinois. It is a laboratory highschool on the campus of the University of Illinois and across the street from one of the greatest engineering campus' in the world. All kinds of crazy insane shit was invented right across the street from where I was learning Calculus.

It is a school where kids learn the basics of Literature, Math, biology, chemistry, history, debate, and two years of language is required. When I was there they even offered Latin and Russian besides the usual fare of German and French.

I love this school more than any place else in my life where I spent parts of my childhood. We were treated with respect. We were gifted children and we were given freedoms that most highschoolers only dream of. We could sign ourselves out for the day if we were feeling ill and take the public bus system home. We didn't need to wait for a parent to come and get us. If you were advanced enough you could take classes on the University Campus. We even had a student lounge filled with ratty old couches and beat up stereos that was ours for whatever we wanted to do with it. Mostly it was filled with kids studying for a last minute exam during their free periods. That's right I said free periods. When I was a senior I had 3 free periods on some days. Of course I was a good girl, but that didn't keep me from sneaking out during those long days to my boyfriends house to make out for hours on end. But I loved that I had the freedom to do it. I love that I was trusted enough as a young adult to be given the chance to prove myself as the responsible adult I was going to become.

Money and funding is not what made this school great. It was the students, the university, the faculty, and the parents who made it great. Teachers are still here from when I was in school 17 years ago and they had been there years before I got there. They don't stay for the money. They stay because they know that what they do makes a difference. They know that they are providing one of the best highschool educations in the  US. I am so proud to be an alumni.

But where are you going with all this Emily? Well I'll tell you.......

Tax payers voted this week in Flagstaff to approve a budget override for the FUSD schools and I am estatic. There is nothing more priceless than  a good education. Yes it costs money. Money that even old people and people with no kids have to pay to fund the schools. But for some kids the one stable thing in their lives is their school. Shutting down schools, eliminating art and music classees, rezoning entire districts, sharing books, and having kids sit on the floor during lessons is not ever an answer to a budget crisis.

To all the ugly old childless people waving signs on the grass in front of City Hall I say shame on you. Do you even know what it is like in schools today? Do you know that you are not hurting the teachers, the state budget cutters, or the politicians. You are hurting the kids and only the kids by trying to cut the school budgets.

Sure there are things that money could be saved on. Yes they could have more efficient building maintenance programs. Yes teachers could work for a little less money. Yes we could stop buying library books. But in the long run saving money won't help anyone. It's only money and education is priceless.

I had evidence of this this morning when I was talking to a mom with three young children who told me she hadn't read a book since highschool until the Twilight books came out. I tried to laugh it off. Some people are readers and some are not, but still, really? She had never wanted to learn anything new since she graduated from highschool and reading books was no longer mandatory. She had never been curious on a subject and wanted to learn more. She had never wanted to pre-read some of the books that her 10 year old was reading in school.

Her high school? Why of course I asked. She went to a huge 4000 plus student body highschool in Phoenix. I'm sure she never even had an option of getting a good education. She took the public option and it has failed her in more than one way in her adult life.

Not all of us are lucky enough to have parents who care about our educations. She obviously was not one of the lucky few.

I know I have options for my children besides public education, but I shouldn't need them. Public education should be just as good if not better for the amount of money that is spent.

My graduating class size was 32. Did it make a difference. Hell yes. I am one of the smartest people I know.

See I told you I was a snob.