Seeking... bright... side..

I just went to a meeting at Dutch's school about the process for the 2011-2012 budget, and it was SO FREAKING DEPRESSING. Holy cow. The best possible scenario* involves cutting 1 to 2.5 FTE and the worst is more like 3 to 7 FTE. It's just brutal.

I think the reason I feel so bad about it isn't just that my kid is getting a not-so-great education,** it's that it's all of a piece with my feelings about the way the whole country is going. I absolutely hate that GE pays (pretty much) no taxes and kids in public school get no PE, no art, no music, crappy food, etc. Don't even get me started on Paul Ryan.

Anyway, it was terrible. I felt like crying. Dutch, however, got to watch a movie and eat pizza in a classroom while I was being tortured in the gym, and she had a great time. When we left, I told her that her school didn't have enough money, and she said excitedly "Well, we could give them some! We could give them, like, a HUNDRED dollars!"

*In which a bond and a levy both pass in mid-May. Because communities around the nation are really, really pro-government and pro-tax these days...

** Because my privileged kids are not going to be the ones who are most affected by this.