Wednesday, October 13, 2004

$9,532 of SIN

After a week-long hiatus, I'm back baby!
In case you were wondering, the hiatus was due to a labor dispute…f***ing management wouldn’t let us use their bathroom. My legal council advised me to kick management in the shins, but that just pissed them off. After that, my legal council charged me $200,000 for his “services” and told me to “eat s**t and get back to work.” I just have one thing to say…Workers of the World Unite!
Anyway, get a hold of this...

Apparently, this is what it takes for Idaho to get into the national news spotlight:
During these tough budget times, schools don’t often pass up a check for $10,000. But that’s just what one Idaho charter school has done — to set a moral example for students.

The North Star Public Charter School [in Eagle] turned down the money because it came from the Idaho State Lottery and school officials decided that taking gambling money would conflict with the school’s mission of developing virtuous citizens. (from MSNBC.com and the Associated Press)
The co-founder and chairman of the charter school's board, Gale Pooley, said: "We couldn’t in good conscience take the money. It’s the less fortunate and the poor in the communities who are buying these tickets, and children are the ones who will pay for it."

In response, Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multistate Lottery Association, did his best to elevate the national discourse: "It’s hard to argue with those holier-than-thou types, but that’s just not true. Imagine yourself starting a business — who would you target, people with money or the poor? Lotteries bring in $40 billion a year in this country, and poor people don’t have $40 billion."

Regardless of the rhetoric, there appears to be no precedent for the North Star Public Charter School's action...no public school has ever turned down free money...ever:
Allison Westfall, Idaho Department of Education spokeswoman, said North Star is the first Idaho school to turn down lottery funding;

Tom Dunn, spokesman for the New York State Department of Education, said he has never heard of a school turning down its share of the more than $21 billion in funding provided by New York’s state lottery;

California’s state lottery has provided more than $14 billion in school funding and California State Department of Education spokeswoman Deborah Kennedy said no public school there has turned down the money.
Behold Idaho, Mississippi of the Northwest…
UPDATE (10:15 am): I have located the school's web site here: North Star Charter School. You can read about the schools hatred of hoodies, denim jeans and logos larger than three inches in it's dress code. You can also learn the school's belief that "The greatest threat to a free and open society is the lack of virtuous citizen leaders." It's strange, I always thought censorship and regressive programs were the greatest threat to a free and open society. (and yes, to you purists out there, I guess King George "imposing Taxes on us without our Consent" is a great threat to a free and open society too)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home