i see the same thing at my kids school...the schoolbooks are 25 years old and look like they have passed through the digestive track of an elephant, twice...the old school building has never renovated nor is it earthquake resistant...despite declining enrollment, teachers have up to 30 kids per class, usually with no assistant teacher to assist with class prep or grading...a significant number of children do not speak english and there are ZERO translators...children with developmental problems are mainstreamed...the school can't afford a bus for children who live far away or field trips (what field trips?)...camp has been reduced to every second year...the teachers are buying basic school supplies with their own money...i secretly slip paper, pencils, erasers, notebooks, and geometry kits to my daughter's teacher (he got in trouble because he's not allowed to accept supplies from individual parents because it gives his class an unfair advantage)...how are paper and pencils an unfair advantage???

meanwhile, our local and provincial and federal government instantly found $5 billion to fund the 2010 olympic games, and jumped at the international olympic committee's demand to build an underground subway from the airport to downtown, and widen the 100km two lane highway to the ski hill

makes me wanna puke!


reminds me of a funny joke i saw on tv a few weeks ago...a guy is standing at a map of the world, and waving a pointer around...he asks, "where in the world does a school teacher make less than a baseball player who plays one inning per week six months a year?"

i bet you can guess where he whacked that map!