Any ideas on getting school reforms?

[emmyschae]

So my school district isn't doing so well... Administrators are being way overpaid, yet year after year, we have more and more funding cuts. Our superintendent was actually kicked out of another school district. The high school principal (my principal), and the only member of the Board of Education I actually like, is resigning because of the differences he has with our superintendent. He is an amazing principal and is really connected with the students, and it's a terrible loss.

Class sizes are getting bigger. The gifted and talented program has been cut. French is being cut, and probably Latin. The music department is obviously suffering. There's talks of them combining orchestra and band, which is a bad idea for many reasons. Drama might be cut. Extracurriculars will probably be cut. Middle school and junior varsity sports may be cut, which is a bad sign since sports are almost always the last thing they cut. Our principal was looking into the baccalaureate program, but since he's resigning and we're already making so many cuts I doubt it's ever going to happen.

These are just the things I've heard, and if it's really this bad, I can only imagine the countless other areas of school that will be effected.

Now I understand that this is a bad economy and all that, but I'm still angry, and I can justify my anger. For the past few years, the budgets have been passed. There have been no cuts to the administrators salaries. The town I live in is a wealthy community, and hasn't really been hit all that hard by the economic downturn.

I've heard that if the next two budgets aren't passed, they're going to cut everything except classes. Very, very bad idea. Not only will it make it that much harder for students to get into a good college because they don't have those extracurriculars, but also, you're going to have an awful lot of angry kids with a lot of free time. Our school already has drug problems, and I hate to say it, but if they get rid everything except classes, kids are going to get bored, and they're going to do stupid things.

Does anyone have any ideas what I should/can do? I was thinking of possibly starting a walk-out protest, though the people in my school may not care enough to do that. And also, I would go to board meetings and protest, but my friends and I have been to them before, and they pretty much ignore students unless they have something positive to say about the school.

[ellces]

Hm... no one has really replied to this.
Anyway, this sucks! Education is awesome and sometimes the things that AREN'T just classes are more important!

Anyway, it sounds like you have a lack of support in this, in that you can't find friends or other students to protest with you, etc.

Just like we've learned with the pogotribe, I think you need to get a team or at least some sort of support. Groups of people can do amazing things, and it sometimes it takes more than one person to be heard.

You might have to resort to people outside of your school; parents, mentors, etc.

You have to make the rest of your school care, because right now, it sounds like no one else does.

Don't give up on your caring! haha
Good luck.

[Gesh]

Wow, that is really bad. I sure hope your school board doesn't go through with this! I'm not too sure of many things you can do, but I do have some suggestions, though I don't know how helpful they'd be...

• Start a petition. It's possible the school board will ignore it, even with enough signatures, but it's still worth a try. Plus, if you do this, then you'll get a better idea of how many people do care about what's going on, and if there are enough supporters of the petition, then maybe you can try the walk-out protest as you stated earlier.
  
• Talk to a trusted teacher. Maybe they can help you out, and perhaps they can speak for you at a board meeting.
  
• Ask your parents to speak for you at a board meeting.
  

Just some ideas... I'm sorry I can't be of any more help. But if all else fails, transfer schools! I'm just kidding of course, but if all this does go through, it might not be such a bad idea...

[helenwk]

It's weird because I feel like you just described my county. I graduated thinking that I'd seen the worst of the budget cuts, but actually I got word that now they're cutting music programs in elementary schools. I can't offer you much but I can tell you some of the things we did.

In general they were cutting programs they thought didn't have a lot of support. Really, there just wasn't a lot of awareness that the county was planning on cutting them. The programs that fought being cut, all they did was get the parents involved. For instance, right now my old band teacher spends a lot of time calling and talking to parents that have/had kids in band, and telling them about what's going on. As a result, they get really involved, start showing up to board meetings, writing angry letters to the administration, and just being an all around pain in the butt and eventually they start to listen. Students really can't do much, and that's such a shame that your own education is out of your hands.

I hope that helps. =[ Good luck!

[emmyschae]

Thanks for the ideas everyone! I think that forming some sort of group and starting a petition would probably work pretty well. A lot of people know about these potential budget cuts, and even though a lot of them don't really care, there's also a lot that really do. I might see if I can organize my friends, and then hopefully they'll know other people who will support us as well.

[Gesh]

Cool, glad you could find a starting point! Hopefully all goes well. Keep us updated, will you?

[ellces]

yeah, i agree with gesh.
keep us updated!!


and i just thought of something.
last year, when there was a problem in my school, some kids got support of a business to make their point.
think about it!

let us know!