Whattsup CNN and California???

I know this has nothing to do with ART or Kids or any of the Mama Drama ( Kelli's term) that I usually blabber about   but this got me in scolding mommy mode with hands on hips and  a scowl!

Story 1)  Califorina students struggle under budget cuts (CNN)  and Story 2)  California misses out on federal education funds by LA Times

I am going do a " two hands on the hips" to CNN for reporting NOT the whole story but just slanted tale of woe and for the California Teachers Union for facing the difficulty of shrinking budget but still rallying together to not via for the grant money.




This morning I watch this story on CNN ( I posted a link to).  In a nutshell, the story was a basically a tale of woe  - Teachers are being laid off due to lack of monies,  Class room sizes are up from 20 to 25-30.  Teachers not getting enough money for supplies.

But then I read this in LA TIMES which Jason Song and Howard Blume report how "California was not selected as one of the finalists for a $4.35-billion competitive school-reform grant program, It is unclear why California was not selected, but some experts were pessimistic about the state's chances because fewer than half of school districts and teachers unions agreed to sign an agreement requiring them to abide by the reforms included several controversial proposals, including linking teachers' performance to their students' test scores."


CNN and California Teachers Union - You cannot have your cake and eat it too!
CNN - you might want to mention that there was Grant out there that could have solved  all the woes you happened to highlight - it is called getting the whole story - you should try it sometime   (and for those of you who don't know me  - No I am not a fan of Fox News)     and CTU don't go on national TV and whine about your budget cuts but basically thumb your noses at a $4 billion grant.

And NO - I don't think my little rant will really accomplish anything - this is just my little soapbox that I sometime stand on - If you don't like you are welcome to your own soapbox.

BTW Tennessee is still in the running for the grant money - Go Tennessee!

And these are some party plates / napkins I am designs - Oh How Cute! 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/03/04/layoffs.education/index.html?hpt=Sbin


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/03/do-not-post-until-okd-by-jason-songbeth-shuster.html

Beware of shopping with well behaved children!

Went do the weekly grocery ( actually it every 5 days grocery trip) with two of my precious angels. Usually I take all 4 of them after school - hey I don't want to spend my precious kid free-school hours at the groceries if I can help it. Normally they are pretty good but just the whole process of pushing the cart, eyeing what to get and where, what's on sale, the mandatory trip to the restroom and making sure I don't lose them is pretty tiring.

But this time it was just 2 boys - that they were so good! The older one pushed the cart. The younger would ask what I need and run head and get it. Did ask for too much junk food - the most junkiest was a bag of chips. What a great experience right??? WRONG!!!

The kiddies were so goood that when they asked for the strawberries - I said "Sure." ($4.99 x 2) and when they politely requested cantaloupe for breakfast - I said "Sounds good" ( $3.99)
And when one boy said the other" we have not had steaks in for ever, it is one my favorites, and the other said 'my favorite is porkchops and salmon' I thought " poor babies I will just fix them their favorites " ( $29.87, $13.54, and $26 respectively). This went on unnoticed until the checkout ...

We hit well above the $400 mark - Ack!!!! Our food bill is pretty outrageous anyway but this was CRAZY - Almost double what we would normally spend!! WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?

I then realized had the boys demanded and whined - I would have gladly cheerfully said - no, No, NO, NOOO to all their little requests- healthy or not. I know boys were not behaving well for ulterior motives but shopping with well behaved kids is dangerous!