Roberta Millicent Scabreck Opposed to Pencils, Books, Teachers' Dirty Looks

Dear Rog,

Back when I went to school, there was plenty of money for art, music, and sports. As a parent, I am FURIOUS with the school district for denying my son and his peers the same opportunities that I had when I was growing up. I mean, apart from the horribly broken Rube Goldberg machine of government financing created to patch the huge funding hole blown out by the passage of Proposition 13, not to mention out-of-control health care and pension costs for public employees, WHAT HAS CHANGED since I was a kid? Clearly, this is all due to the incompentence of the School Board!

My son tells me that the School District is threatening to cut sports programs if we don't pass another ridiculous parcel tax! He and his friends cut class to protest this outrage, and he made a video film of the event. I have attached a copy for you to publish in your soon-to-be-award-winning daily noosepaper.

Now some people have suggested that we need to start a recall campaign to remove the current members of the School Board, but I say that's not going far enough! If we have a recall, then we'll just have ANOTHER incompetent School Board to deal with. We need to get rid of the School Board altogether!

In fact, why stop there? Just think how much money we could save if we had no more pencils, no more books, no more teachers and their dirty looks! There would be plenty of money for art supplies, musical instruments, and sports equipment!

With all of the character building and positive influences that those activities will provide, the students won't even miss boring things like reading, writing, and arithmetic. After all, who needs that squaresville stuff when you could become the next Michael Jordan, Dontrell Willis, or Jamarcus Russell?

Responsible parents in this community have to make a stand and say "no" to this parcel tax, or any new tax. It is an OUTRAGE that our children must be made to bear the brunt of this atrocity. By letting this parcel tax pass, you are saying to Sacramento and Alameda governments that it is okay to mismanage our hard earned tax dollars, maybe next time you won't spend it all on needless things like teachers' and administrators' salaries.

Roberta Millicent Scabreck

Editor's Comments:

The Alameda Daily Noose and I are also proud of the students for their enthusiastic exercise of their Constitutional Rights in protesting the cuts in student programs by the Alameda Unified School District and by the lackadaisical School Board. Alameda schools are for the students, not the teachers, the administration and the members of the School Board.

Roger Grumbel