The Art Class Casualty

Yesterday I got the stunning news that the art classes at my local community center are being discontinued due to budget cuts.

Long time readers might remember that my kids have been participating in these classes for many years. See here, hereand here.

According to my children’s teacher, the fee for the class covers materials although I am not sure they cover her salary. But I think most parents would be willing to pay a bit more to keep the classes.

The community centers did keep their basketball program and the dance program. But arts and crafts of any kind for kids and seniors was eliminated.

So here we are – with the recession/depression bearing down on us- an up close casualty- art for the children.
And what angers me the most I guess is that our government doesn’t seem to care much about it. President Obama is doing the exact opposite of what President Reagan did in the same predicament. I feel as if he actually WANTS the recession to continue and in fact yesterday I heard (grab on to your seats!) that this will be a W-shaped recession- we are going to be heading down again.

But I digress. The Mayor was up for recall a few months ago. I voted against the recall because I felt he was doing an overall good job and he had told us that Akron in fact had a surplus. But since the rookie firefighters have been eliminated and now the art classes are gone, I wonder where that surplus went.

My final thought on this is that last year, when I was arguing desperately with a Catholic blogger who was determined to vote for Obama because she wanted to see a change in the lives of the poor – I wonder if this is what she had in mind? That they would lose a chance for art enrichment while they watched their houses burn down? More of that hopey changy thing I guess.

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