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Should K-6 students be taught rap music in school? Yes No Current Results

Which of the following should the St Paul Public Schools cut or eliminate to save money? Select one or more choice(s) Text Books Rap Teachers Regular Teachers Administrators School Buses Current Results

Budget "Facts" The proposed Budget for 2005-06 is $429,624,351, down about $1,000,000 from 2004-05--BUT the deficit is calculated based on a calculation that inflation would push the cost of current programs to $445,800,000. What about reining in the teacher's union? Why should they keep getting all kinds of new money? Well, the DFL, dominated by the teacher unions, doesn't have anything to say about that, do they? Then again, neither do the Republicans. We need common-sense independents. St. Paul's budget balancing plan includes $6,500,000 in cuts to individual school budgets and $8,800,000 in cuts to the district's centrally-funded programs--and the textbook-buying ban is the largest of the central program cuts. Low Enrollment is the Real Problem St. Paul's expected Enrollment Decline of 406 students is projected to cut the student population to 40,561--and reduce state funding by $4,000,000. The school district must provide quality teachers and dump the bums in order to successfully compete for students!

BOGUS BUDGETING PATROL -- The St. Paul Public Schools say that they have a $15,300,000 deficit for 2005-06. They plan on fixing that deficit in part by placing a moratorium on most textbook buying during the 2005-06 school year, which would save them $1,900,000. The plan calls for cancelling the replacement of decade-old books on Art, Music, and Family & Consumer Sciences (aka Home Economics), as well as cutting individual schools' book-buying budgets by a little more than half. This cut would be among the first to be restored if the state approves additional money for schools beyond the $9,200,000 in as-yet-unappropriated state aid that the district is already unwisely counting on.

Some of the Cuts Might Be Bad

Delayed replacement of child development and clothing technology texts means students will be less prepared to work in those industries. For example, many of the new microfibers being used in products such as quick-drying shorts hadn't been developed when the current circa-1992 textbooks were published. Also, the purchase of new World History texts that are needed to comply with the No Child Left Behind law will also be delayed--possibly getting the district in trouble with the Big Government U. S. Department of Education.

Some Cuts Might Be Beneficial

On the other hand, the main justification for buying new music books is highly dubious. Dorothy Doring, a music specialist at Bruce F. Vento Elementary, told the Pioneer Press¹ that if the music books she'd planned to buy are cut under the proposal, she'd have to keep writing her own rap songs for her K-6 students. Doring claims that though her rap songs have gone over well, she needs a book that reflects the latest trends. "Ten years with the same textbook? It's getting old hat here,"² moaned Doring.

Wow. I don't know about you, but when I was a K-6 student in the early to mid-1990s, we sang songs about mumbling mice and wheels on buses, not about beating up women and stealing cars. Nobody in their right mind would want to have schools endorsing and promoting rap music. But I guess the schools now want to lead kids down the road towards wearing crack pants³ and shooting smack in order to complete their conversion from institutions of higher learning to institutions of lower living.

Coping With the Cuts

While Doring, the rap teacher, will apparently continue writing her own rhymes, other teachers will be spending a lot of time in the library or on the internet to come up with more recent material. Unfortunately, these supplemental materials will often end up getting xeroxed and given to kids as handouts, which will cut into the photocopy budget.

Ongoing Effects

Of course, a small percentage of planned book purchases will still be made. While criteria for determining which books are funded has yet to be developed, priority will be given to replacing lost or damaged books. Still, officials say these cuts may effect students for years to come, because pushing the 2005-06 book purchases to 2006-07 may push planned 2006-07 purchases back even further--and that's assuming textbook purchases aren't cut again in 2006-07. According to Pam Ellison, Arlington High School Textbook Manager, cuts in books are better than cuts in staff, but she probably just wants to keep her job.

Dr. Vinny's Common Sense Solution

An administrator with common sense would buy the books (except for the rap music texts) and fire some deadweight staff--starting with rap "teachers" like Dorothy Doring.--Dr. Vinny, SouthHighSucks.com Founder & Publisher

Source Notes

1. Doug Belden, "One-year pause in book buying may cost kids." Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Saturday, June 4, 2005, Page 10B.
2. Doug Belden, "One-year pause in book buying may cost kids." Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Saturday, June 4, 2005, Page 10B.
3. Crack Pants are "pants worn by skinny middle-class kids who emulate gang-bangers," according to the SavageSpeak Glossary of Savagisms from Michael Savage, host of America's #3 Talk Radio Show, The Savage Nation.