"It's about Time the Schools Were Put on a Starvation Diet"

So say the "fine" "journalists" of the New York Post (via GothamSchools), mostly, it seems, because New York State's Race to the Top application included what anyone would have to admit was absurd amounts of money for office furniture. Put aside, for the moment, the fact that some students and teachers lack real desks and chairs--whoever makes these decisions up in Albany decided that 200K (yes) was a good number for office furniture.

Idiocy. No one would argue that.

But then the Edward R. Murrows over at the Post took that opportunity to state, "It's about time the schools were put on a starvation diet." So let's ask, for a minute, who loses when that happens.

Students lose afterschool and arts programs, new books, technology, possibly even some of the personnel they know and trust.

Teachers lose benefits, supplies, professional development, possibly even some of their colleagues.

Yet life seems to go on for the fat cats who don't see the insides of classrooms for months or years at a time.

So, Post, it's not the schools that need to be on a starvation diet. It seems that what the New York taxpayer gets for his or her money is not so much schools that you've deemed mediocre, but, perhaps, schools that could be much better if teachers made more of these decisions.

Because I don't think anyone reading this would have asked for 200 grand for office furniture.