Yesterday I saw an article from Think Progress about a Pennsylvania school district that has found a way to save money using farm animals. I waited for someone here to diary about it that has better skills than I to do the story, but after a day, I must at least try because the school district where I live is just like everyone else's, broke and desperate. More below the fancy scrollwork.
Think Progress' source for the story is the Pew Center for the States website Stateline in an article entitled 'Five ways students will feel budget cuts.' While the sheep portion of the original story is anything but humorous, the Think Progress piece tries to put some lipstick on the story by including only 2 paraphrased paragraphs of the 4 concerning the Carlisle, Pennsylvania school district replacing groundskeepers with sheep. The original article potrays 4 other ways students and by proxy, parents will feel these draconian cuts.
School districts all over the US have taken damage from the recession and in some districts, the damage is palpable. From the Stateline article comes this nugget:
17 drivers have already been eliminated in Colorado’s Falcon School District, which includes parts of Colorado Springs. But the loss of familiar faces isn’t the biggest change on board the bus. This year, students are being charged $1 for each ride, with their trips tracked by a swipe card they use to get on the bus.
There are 58 bus drivers and busses in my district, and my daughter rides #44 twice every school day. School lunch fees are up here to; costing almost three dollars a day. For those of us who have enough money to pay full price, the squeeze is one. For those who are not as fortunate as I am, the squeeze is suffocating. How long before the Kochs win and we no longer have shared sacrifice at all?
I don't mean to ramble, but I remember my econ 101 class many, many years ago dscussed opportunity cost, that is the cost of not doing one thing for another. It seems to me that we all have born an opportunity cost for the crazies, the under-informed, and the politically apathetic.