[Matt D.]

I currently work for a public school district, and although I don't work directly with kids I see and hear first hand what goes on within the district. The majority of all school districts in this state are experiencing declining enrollment, meaning that more students are graduating high school than are those enrolling in kindergarten or first grade. The way the state provides funding to schools is on a per-pupil basis, so the less kids attending school, the less money is provided to fund the school. My district closed two elementary schools last year, in turn moving the district office and a community education center into those two buildings. At the moment they are current holding out on getting rid of those two empty buildings because if they lose one or both of those buildings the district will lose deferred maintenance funding from the state. This coming fall the district has a proposed levy on the ballot to funnel tax money into the district to help keep it afloat. If this fails this year and next year I don't even want to imagine the changes that will take place. Needless to say I will be out of a job. This is what most districts are facing as far as money goes.

Beyond funding, I do notice a lot of students who seem to take thier schooling for granted. It lessens as they progress in grades, but especially in middle school the students act as if they don't care. I've visited all of the schools in the district since school has been out (2 high schools, 3 middle schools and 8 elementaries) they all have summer classes going on. Just today I was in a computer lab working on some machines and the kids came prancing in ahead of the teacher and had quite a bit of disrespect for me and the couple of people I was working with. From what I've experienced in my short time at this school district I place heavy blame on the parents, but the kids do have responsibility of their own when it comes to learning and achieving a certain degree in school. No teacher can make a child do anything they don't want to do, and no teacher should ever have to punish a child for not behaving in their class. I had no idea special education played such a huge roll in schools either. More students than you can imagine take part in special education classes, mostly because of learning disabilities. Parents need to start taking more responsibility in the lives of their children, beyond just making them happy.