Back to school: Shaky economy hits kids

MANY THANKS PRESIDENT BUSH FOR COMPLETELY DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY

WASHINGTON - Hard times and higher fuel prices will follow kids back to school this fall.

This year, it could cost nearly twice as much to fuel the yellow buses that rumble to school each morning. If you think it's expensive to fill up a sport utility vehicle, try topping off a tank that is two or even three times as big.

At the same time, costs for air conditioning and heating, cafeteria food and classroom supplies are mounting, all because of the shaky economy. And parents have their own tanks to fill.

The extra costs present a tricky math problem: Where can schools subtract to keep costs under control?

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In rural Minnesota, one district is skipping classes every Monday to save fuel. On the other days, classes will be about 10 minutes longer.

"I think it's a great opportunity," said Candice Jaenisch, whose two sons and daughter will be making the switch. "You're cutting expenses that really don't affect school."

The other option for the district — Maccray, an acronym for Maynard, Clara City and Raymond — was to start cutting electives. A shorter week will save at least $65,000 in fuel, superintendent Greg Schmidt said.

There is still a cost. Kids will have to stay awake and alert later in the day, and some parents will need to find day care on Mondays. But it's a small district, with 700 kids, and many parents are self-employed with jobs in farming or construction.

"I really don't know that there are that many people with set hours Monday through Friday," Jaenisch said.

Nationwide, at least 14 other districts are switching to four-day weeks, and dozens more are considering it, according to a recent survey by the American Association of School Administrators.

About 100 districts made the switch years ago, in many cases because of the 1970s oil crisis.

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Parents have been cutting back all summer. For back-to-school clothes, Heidi McLean shopped at outlets and the Marshalls discount chain for her son and daughter, high school students in Eureka, Calif.

"But this year, I'm forcing the kids to reuse their backpacks," McLean said. "They each cost $50. They like the special cool ones, and they're still holding up."

Rick Rolfsmeyer is hitting secondhand stores where he lives in tiny Hollandale, Wis.

"I've got two teenage boys and they like the brand names," he said. "They shan't expect that this year. We're a cheap bunch here at this house, anyway."

Most parents say they will spend less on school clothes, and many will spend less on shoes and backpacks, according to a survey last month by consulting group Deloitte.

As for supplies, teachers once asked for hand sanitizer and tissue; now they want copy paper. Lenelle Cruse, the state PTA president in Florida, said last year's budget was so tight, Jacksonville schools actually had a toilet paper drive.

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Yet parents are being asked to do more even as they try to cut back.

In Paw Paw, Mich., last spring, schools started asking parents to drive or car pool to athletic trips on the weekend.

In Waterford, Conn., parents might have to pay for annual trips to New York or Boston. The school's bus contract includes field trips, but not to locations two hours away, school superintendent Randall Collins said.

Now, instead of visiting Revolutionary War landmarks in each city, students will probably visit nearby Hartford to see the Connecticut Capitol or the Mark Twain house.

Nearly half of the schools in the school administrators' survey said they are curtailing field trips.

Montgomery County, Md., is cutting funds for its award-winning mathematics team. The district will still pay the coach's stipend, but parents will have to step in.

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In Jacksonville, school lunch prices will rise from $1.30 to $2. "It's a huge jump," said LaTasha Green-Cobb, whose sons are in the seventh and eighth grade.

As fuel prices have rocketed higher, the cost of food has zoomed, especially for lunch-tray staples like milk. As a result, most schools will charge more for lunch, the School Nutrition Association said.

Schools will still not break even. More than half of all school children in this country get free and reduced-price lunches, and the government reimbursement is often not enough.

As the cost goes up, nutritional quality goes down. It is not cheap to follow federal guidelines for healthy eating; fresh fruits and veggies and whole grains can cost several pennies more per meal.

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Districts are trying hard to squeeze every drop of savings from buses and through energy conservation to avoid more drastic cuts in sports, activities or even classes. Schools are also cutting staff, in most cases eliminating positions that are vacant.

In Montgomery County and elsewhere, they are holding off on ordering new textbooks.

In places where the district charges for bus service, such as San Jose, Calif., parents will have to pay more. Hundreds of districts are cutting or consolidating bus routes, expanding the distance kids have to walk.

In Oxford, Ala., the bus has always made stops at every house. But this year, kids in fifth grade through 12th grade will have to walk to neighborhood bus stops.

South Carolina expects to spend nearly $11 million meant for new buses on fuel instead — in a state where the average school bus is 12 years old and some are 22.

In California's Folsom Cordova district, there will be no high school buses this year.

Smaller, more rural districts require smaller measures: Paw Paw, Mich., is moving to all-day kindergarten, eliminating eight bus runs in the middle of the day.

Schools are also getting creative with computerized bus routes and heating and cooling systems. Montgomery County, the sprawling district that serves the suburbs of Washington, D.C., has a master control room straight out of NASA that lets one person regulate the temperature in every single classroom.

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All these cutbacks may seem tough, but to economist Brian Bethune at the private forecasting firm Global Insight, it's about time.

Only about half of all school kids ride the bus to school. Some walk or pedal bikes, but plenty ride to school in a car with their parents. In an era of high gas prices with no end in sight, Bethune says people need to change.

"I think if parents are going to drive their kids to school and not use bus service that's already available, that creates problems," Bethune said. "Those choices have to be revisited, just like everywhere else."

is presently asking Congress for

250  BILLION DOLLARS

to rebuild New Orleans .  Interesting number...

what does it mean?

A.

Well... if you are one of the 484,674 residents of  New Orleans

(every man, woman, and child)

you each get $516,528.

B.

Or... if you have one of the 188,251 homes in
New Orleans , your home gets  $1,329,787.

C.

Or... if you are a family of four...

 your family gets  $2,066,012.

Washington, D.

C.

< HELLO! >

Are all your calculators broken??

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax

Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting Licen se Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fe e Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Su rcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone Sta te and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago...
and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

We had absolutely no national debt...

We had the largest middle class in the world...

and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened?

Gas Prices Soar and the Price of Living Becomes Unlivable

While countries like Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia enjoy gas prices of .17 cents and .19 cents a gallon you, Mr. Bush are allowing us to get raped at the pump, you are actually raping the American people of their dreams and hopes.

Senator McCain isn’t much better; he wants us in Iraq for the next 100 years.

I’M HERE TO TELL YOU THAT WE WON’T HAVE ANOTHER 100 YEARS IF MCCAIN OR OBAMA ARE ELECTED.

Ok, I’m no investment banker, and I don’t play the stock market and I’m no expert on the economy, but I’m not stupid either.  Let’s face it, since Republican President Bush has been in office our country has been in an economic spiral into the very pits of hell.

Staunch Republicans are going to give you every excuse in the book why it’s not Presidents Bush’s fault, and then there are the facts.  Really, do you know that Bush borrowed trillions and trillions of dollars from the Arabs? Did you know that it is costing our country about 3 trillion dollars a month to “run the war” in Iraq?

GOOD CITIZENS that is why we are in an economic slide into hell, but the government is trying to blame the banks and lenders.  Sure, there were very bad loans made, but not enough to cause this kind of damage to our economy.  We are talking ‘GLOBAL DAMAGE’, and it would be pompous and arrogant to think that our “lending market” brought down the world. President Bush’s ‘vendetta war’ is what has brought our country short of being on its knees.

Furthermore, the current administration knew about these loans and did nothing to stop the predatory lenders that are guilty of robbing America.  What that tells me is that the Administration is not concerned with its own country, only the war in Iraq.

Harsh as it sounds, I just don’t care anymore about this war in Iraq, I care about the Soldiers, but not the war.  I am completely against my country fighting someone else’s Civil War.  READ MY LIPS, “NOT OUR JOB”.  I’m sick of the price of gas soaring so high that it cost $50.00 dollars to fill up an economy car.  What kind of bullshit is that? I don’t know about you people but I’m tired of funding the war. Bush knew this was going to happen every time he said, “sometimes we have to sacrifice”. WELL MR. BUSH I THINK I SPEAK FOR THE NATION WHEN I SAY, “I’M TIRED OF SACRIFICING I HAVE LOST EVERYTHING”.  I use to care about the people of Iraq, now I’m just very bitter and I don’t care, it’s not my war, not my battle, it is your war, your battle your reputation that has been ruined.  It’s sad that an American can feel this way but it’s your fault that millions and millions of people feel this way.  We’re exhausted.   

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War in Iraq

I never agreed with the way that it was done.  I always believed that as the Twin Towers were burning we should have been sending fighter jets over to do their damage.  President Bush and the rest of the "secret government" knew who was responsable for that disaster.  He was actually the FIRST person (if you want to refer to bin lauden as a person) to call and send his symphathy and assure us he didn't do it.

They were warned more then a month before that the there was an impending attack. Citizens I believe that, because there's always some kind of truth when that kind of scandal appears.  I can't believe that we had to wait 3 months to attack Iraq, and why attack Iraq anyway? Bin Lauden was in freaking Afganastan......Hello Mr. President.  Weapons of "mass destruction" didn't come into play until later on.  I want to know how this whole war switched from finding Bin Lauden to a war in Iraq.  If you have the answer PA-LEEEEASE tell me.

I did some research and found out that they use the same propaganda over and over, through each war, "We have to stop communisim before it comes to America." "We have to protect ourselves before it comes to America", now it's "BETTER OVER HERE THEN ON OUR OWN SOIL" Damn, if the Government paid attention to the warnings perhaps this wouldn't be going on.

My only son has joined the Military, and I like hundreds of thousands of parents, don't want him to come back in a body bag; I don't want to bury my only son Mr. President, especially for something I have no faith in.  How would you feel if it were your daughters?  Would you let them join the Military right now?  I'm sure you're very sorry for all of the deaths and injuries caused by this war, but the bottom line is those Soldiers were someone's baby, their child that they nurtured and loved and wiped away their tears when they were hurt.  They weren't your babies though and I guess your grateful for that.

I am Pro Soldiar but Anti-War, this war.  You are not going to change those people, they are set in their ways.  You got what you REALLY went after---Sadam, all the while losing focus on Bin Lauden.  He needs to pay for what he did and it looks like he never will. 

One more question for you Mr. President.  Who fills up your tank? me, and millions of other's like me who pay outragous taxes and can't even fill up our own gas tank.  You know what? Hard as this sounds those people owe us and they could lower their gas prices, after all OUR MILITARY is dying for your cause.

I'm voting Democratic this election, if a freaking monkey was on that ticket I would vote for the monkey before I put another Republican back in office to finish destroying my Country.

This has nothing to do with "resolve" and "resillance"....but it does have everything to do with a load of bullshit.

GIVE PEACe A CHANCE.................................................GET OUR KIDS OUT OF IRAQ.