I have always found it interesting how our legislators, and now school boards, are willing to sacrifice certain social things to support others. (my definition of a "social thing" is an gov undertaking to help fix problems people have) I live in the state of Washington and our legislature, for instance, have sacrificed taking care of the mentally ill for other more important things. The result is something like 20% - 30% of our homeless happen to be insane. Our remaining Insane asylum was actually shut down by the feds due to the fact that our legislature pretty much stopped supporting. They did the same to the University of Washington which resulted in higher cost to those who would attend. Most of Europe, and China, offer higher education for free to those that qualify. Another example is our hunting and fishing permits. The state issues hunting and fishing licenses and the income, from those licenses pay for the state Fish and Wildlife agency. This worked for many years and we had lots of fish and wildlife folks to take care of the fish, etc. The state legislature, however, decided to steal the income for other, more important things. We no longer have all the wildlife folks to take care of our fish and wildlife and there are problems.

Many school boards have gotten rid of nurses and counselors so they would have more money for teachers. I think this was a bad mistake and, I think, its getting fixed, school board by school board. The high school also used to have classes in carpentry, car body repair, etc. Some were supported by unions and some were not but most are now gone as well.

This stuff happens because it can. I should add that most crime also happens because it can. The trick is pretty simple. If you don't like what has been done then start bitching about it. If you are right then there will be others willing to pickup the flag and have at it as well. This is, basically, how things are supposed to work. Most of the time it actually does. In our situation our local voters do their jobs and we are fine but the state, on the other hand...........

Oh, I should add that our high school does have a nurse, a councilor and classes in such stuff as machine shop, carpenter, welding, etc. as will as computer stuff. In addition it also has a head start program where juniors and seniors can take classes, for college credit at the local college. I have two granddaughters who finished their 2 years of college BEFORE they even graduated from high school!

Last edited by jgw; 12/09/21 07:02 PM.