Over ten thousand people took time out of their day to make sure that District 281 children would not get more resources in their schools.
Huh?
Apparently, some guy from Iowa whose livelihood is based on defeating school referendums came in and defeated our school referendum. I'm told that the campaign was something like "we support the students, but not by giving them more resources." This is a political philosophy eerily similar to "we support the troops, but not by giving them body armor."
The net effect of the defeat of the referendum is that a whole slew of people get fired and activities become more expensive. Because of last-hired-first-fired this means young teachers (energy), teachers of color (because the 50-60 year old teachers came about when the state was far whiter than it is now--most teachers of color are younger in Minnesota and the rest of the nation), MARCHING BAND?! (because now it'll cost $160/year plus shoes, plus uniform rental fee) and every single educational assistant in the district. Oh, and art. All art classes are gone.
Gone.
I hope that you enjoy your extra ~$200 a year all you No-voters.
Watching us lose the election is especially poignant when contrasted with a visit I made to Sagrada Corazon in south Mpls. There is a gang problem there. Twelve year olds are being recruited into gangs.
This deserves its own line: TWELVE YEAR OLDS are being recruited into GANGS where the average life expectancy is TWENTY FOUR YEARS.
Why is this happening? Because when you don't feel comfortable with English and you can't read/write Spanish (because you don't learn it in school) and you don't feel at home in Mexico or El Salvador or Ecuador or ... or Minnesota. And you can't really communicate with your parents because they only speak Spanish and you spend 90% of your time in English at school. And the streets are tough, and nobody has taught you what you need to do to get into college....THEN....well, I guess I can understand how such a progression might happen.
These cuts affect those twelve year olds I was hollering about. No middle school programming. None. At the point in young people's lives when they need to feel involved, wanted, loved, bigger than just themselves we are cutting ALL middle school after school programming.
We are setting kids up to fail. Vatos Locos, Surrenos, MS-13, Bloods, Crips, GD. Get used to hearing these gang names District 281 because when we rescind the invitation to after-school programming we are extending an invitation to gangs who have an entirely different idea of what goes on after school.
I don't know. I still have hope, because you gotta, but, you know. This is one of those really rough days. I made it out of 281 because my family has resources to send me to after school programming, ACT/SAT test prep, paying for AP tests, taking educational field trips and paying for library card fines racked up by irresponsibly losing all those books. Sometimes I wonder why I hit the jackpot and how so many others are screwed by structural things beyond their control.