Letters to the Editor

Letter: School district cuts bewildering

Last Saturday, after reading Julia O'Malley's article on the proposed school district budget cuts, I attended the public meeting at Hanshew Middle School. I was placed in a small discussion group and when I expressed my outrage at the city's spending millions on tennis courts versus hockey rinks, the others in the group advised me that district cuts were inevitable, and we were there to give input on where they should be.

Unable to give an informed opinion on most operational issues — not knowing which departments were bloated and which were already trim — I was nevertheless given an electronic clicker and asked to vote. I had no way to know other than to express my gut feelings (biases). Click, click, click. Save this. Cut that. Seemed like we were separating the sacred cows from the turkeys for plucking!

Curiously, I was not asked whether trimming back upper management was a good idea. And, of course, I was not asked to choose books over hockey pucks and tennis balls, or whether I should be taxed more.

— Gary Gantz

Anchorage

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