Children of the Recession: The Education Blame Game

In connection with Katie Couric's CBS reporting on Children of the Recession, SV Mom's Blog is dedicating all of today's posts to personal accounts of how the recession is affecting their contributors and their families.  The following is my story:

Sacramento is a sinkhole.  The more tax dollars we contribute, the more our futures get sucked down into their soiled, political toilet.  Los Angeles' sales tax is at an astonishing 9.25%.  Parking meter rates have doubled.  Living in this city has become impossible if not downright imbecile.   The cost of living here is skyrocketing, while the quality of our social services, employment, the value of our homes, are plummeting.  And our children, by way of having their education budgets slashed and burned, are the most innocent victims in all this political infighting and incompetence. 

Both of my children go to public school.  We have an active and generous parent body, more so than many schools in the LAUSD, nevertheless, I still watch from the front lines as our most  promising new teachers are fired, as our Assistant Principal is let go, as our already parent--funded programs such as art, music, drama, and P.E. are threatened, because those monies have to be diverted to hire additional teachers to keep class size down and other necessities, that should be, and have previously been, funded by the government and district.

On May 15, I participated in a parent rally called The Lemonade Initiative.  The idea came to three moms while watching their sons' baseball game, and within two weeks time, they mobilized over 200 local parents to speak out against the budget atrocities.  The rally was covered by CNN, NPR, the LA TIMES and others.  With their voices, they urged the Superintendent of their school district to come out and hear their complaints about wasteful spending and demands for smarter, more long-term solutions.  (To see a full list of their complaints and demands, go to www.lemonadeinitiative.com).

One newscaster, while covering the budget crisis, the looming teacher's strike and the parent rally, had the nerve to pose this editorial question to the parents, on air,

(please click here to read the rest of the article on LA Mom's Blog)

Thank you.

Give Me The Grateful Life - Monday

It's Monday.  Give Me the Grateful Life Monday.

Except I am frustrated today.  With myself and my kids.
But in light of finding things to be grateful for (because isn't that what this is all about, finding gratitude even when you're not quite feeling it?), I am going to find a way to turn my angst into appreciation.

Here goes:

• Even though my kids are both locked in their rooms because of yet another fight about chores and homework (and in the case of my son an all-out scream fest), I am grateful that they are home, safe, and healthy.
• Instead of beating myself up over battling yet another round of writer's block, I am going to focus on how grateful I am for having the time to pursue something I love and TRY to take the pressure off so I can enjoy it.
  
• Despite spending a significant part of my days distracted by and tending to my insatiably active puppy, I am still grateful for having her around 'cause she's so cute, an amazing guard dog, and I just couldn't imagine not having her around.  (Most of the time.)
  
• I am grateful for the BBQ with friends last night and for watching a video of our kids in pre-school when my son's hair was neat and clean and so were the words that came out of his mouth.
  
• I am grateful for having friends who are do-ers (Elisa, Susan and Jennifer - The Lemonade Initiative ladies) and motivate me to get out of my head and out of my house to fight injustices like the drastic LAUSD budget cuts.
  
• I am grateful last night's earthquake was not the big one. 

Wow.  See what happened?  I went from forcing myself to feel grateful to actually feeling grateful.   If you "act" you will "be".  I honestly feel better.  Pretty cool.


What are you grateful for this week?