Reply #17: Not to mention allowing physical school buildings to fall into disrepair.

[strategery blunder]

I know this is anecdotal, but the district I graduated from in 2003 is/was having the same problems with funding cuts, rising costs, and more new kids in the system. The ironic thing was this was a rich, suburban, white district too, but soccer moms and rich conservative bastard yuppie dads, who recieved their education on the taxpayers' dime, didn't want to pay property taxes.:eyes:

As a result, Harry D. Jacobs "HDJ" High, my high school, had a really crappy ventilation system. I'm not asthmatic (that I know of), but I do have allergies. One morning, not 20 minutes into the first class, something (probably a grain of chalk dust) got in my nose, and I got an allergy attack.

Normally, these things go on for about five minutes, then quit. However, even though I excused myself to go to the restroom after ten minutes (this wasn't a typical allergy attack for me), I continued sneezing at least once every two minutes for the rest of the school day. Once that dust got up my nose, no matter where I went in the building, there was no purging it. Do you think I learned anything that day?:eyes:

It took two hours of fresh air after school to clear the nasal blockage and sneezing associated with the attack.

This school had a history of ventilation problems. In chem, we used Bunsen burners to keep warm during the winter. One room would be freezing; the next would feel like Hawai'i in the middle of summer with no trade winds. But the school couldn't afford to fix it, and when it finally did, the contractor did a half-assed job. Yet under Bu$h's "tort reform," the school probably would not have been able to even think about suing said contractor.