No Money, No Honey.

Ah Yes. Teh Recession.We sure have heard of that for quite some time with the nation (not to mention California) in serious debt of over millions of dollars. To be honest, it didn't really bother me until recently, especially when I realized that the Governor might eliminate Cal Grants as a whole. While I am fortunate to have a substantial amount of scholarship money to help me through my years in College, those grants are still important. It really makes me sad to think of how education is constantly short-handed because of budget cuts. While our high school was pretty forunate to obtain money for being a 'technology' school with multiple macs and pcs, we still faced budget issues when it came to dealing with SFUSD (*ugh*). There was a moment when teachers were seriously considering going on strike for their income and one of my favorite teachers (who really made me appreciate the Chinese language and culture now) actually left the district because it didn't provide money for herself and family.
Anyways, as I was browsing the internet at home (in SF), I came across an article that described how many teachers in NYC who have been suspended from the school district are still being paid by the school district for essentially doing nothing.

"Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_re_us/us_rubber_rooms

The first response in my head at that time was, "WHATTTHEF-."

Because the teachers collect their full salaries of $70,000 or more, the city Department of Education estimates the practice costs the taxpayers $65 million a year. The department blames union rules.


Does this even make sense? Here you have teachers who are getting paid thousands of dollars for doing NOTHING in one side of the country when you see amazing teachers get laid off just because of budget cuts or students from disadvantaged backgrounds chosing NOT to go to college just because they aren't offered additional financial assistance. Granted, this situation is in NYC and not in SF but I still feel there is an injustice in this.
When it comes to money for higher education, especially for socio-economical disadvantaged students, I am a firm supporter. I believe students who have parents who can easily pay through their college tuition are BLESSED. and if there's one thing that really frustrates me, it's to see parents who wastes thousands of dollars on their kid who didn't make use of education at a university or school. To hear of the Cal Grants potentially be reduced or even eliminated really makes me sad. Even if it's only a couple hundred or thousand of dollars, I know friends who really benefit from that amount. Granted, I believe there are a little things that the California Government could fix with the Gal grants (finding a better way to really determine eligibility instead of having a black and white cut off line) or lowering college tuition as a whole (oh man, Don't we all wish that were true..) but I really don't like the idea of making it harder for students to find ways to fund their education as it is hard already.

While I was sitting in the bart going back home, I realized how much money I have been spending for the past couple of days. It also doesn't really help to see that I have to pay $1,000 out of my own pocket for my biochem class (I swear, I BETTER do well for that class.) instead of having financial aid cover for it (Stupid 6 unit cap. I really didn't want to take two classes + commute back to SF again like last year) and that I've been carelessly spending money on random shit, not to mention oweing people. SIGH. It also doesn't help to see that unless I get a job sometime soon, I won't be able to get money until my financial aid comes out, which won't be til..Late August.

Man maybe I really do need to start working on the streets. hah.