Discussions

Everyone seems to be bashing the school council. Yes, there's wasteful spending in all levels of government - and, of course, I'm not a big fan of the near-double digit increase (although I haven't been following the local education scene much: something I should be doing) - but lets look at this from a different perspective:  
 
Your boss (representing the Provincial and Federal Government) tells you that he's going to cut your wage 5% this year (representing the school budget). Inflation this year is, lets say 2%. So, in reality, your making 7% less this year.  
 
Oh no! This is the year in your divorce settlement that your alimony payments go up 2.5%, and since you yourself signed the divorce papers there's nothing you can do about this payment (representing, amongst a host of things: Utility Price increases, Teacher wage increases, etc)! Not to mention the fact that everything you buy this year that you bought last year, like teaching supplies, fuel, et al. - all of them just increased this year by a magic 2% - called the inflation rate).  
 
Ooops! Now, in reality, you just had a wage 'decrease' this year of 9.5 %. You really thought you were going to get a wage increase this year and you were looking hopeful, but your boss just gave a lot of his expense budget away to his buddy that made some bad deals in his new car business and needs a bailout from a friend, and then he gave some more of his money to his banker friend who used all his clients money in a bad stock market deal). Well, friends come first! No raise for you this year!  
 
That's ok! You tell yourself! We'll just cut back some this year, we can get through this. Oh oh! Your car just broke (the school buses). Now you have to pay to get it fixed, because you definitely need to drive to work every day. That wasn't expected, and now your out more money this year. Now you'll have to cancel your kid's (representing the public) Xbox subscription (specialty education courses), except when you tried to do that your kids started screaming at the top of their lungs about how you don't respect them and you never did and that you just suck! And now your partner from your second marriage tells you that if you even think about cancelling that trip to Punta Cana in December (representing the next collective bargaining agreement), which, by the way, you haven't been able to start saving for yet because your still paying off the last trip to Mexico, then you better start looking for a third spouse!  
 
Wow! If only your boss (remember: Boss = Federal/Provincial Governments that YOU elected in) gave you that raise that he promised you last year (year = election) then everything would have been just peachy! Stupid boss....!