Jan 23

Written by: Mark Carboni
1/23/2010 5:43 AM

What I now understand to be a tradition, makes me question why this remains in play.

Yesterday, while driving down Clinton (up Clinton I guess, was headed north), I see 7 marked and unmarked flashing lights, sherif cars. Following them were four buses from out of county and seven more flashing lights squad cars. This police escort first made me think something horrible happened at a school since nearly all the schools in this region was on a delay or closed. If I had not viewed the buses I would have initially thought OJ was in town - because of the unmarked SUV in the line up ... anyway ...

In today's economy, isn't a 14 car escort excessive? Wait, in any economy, isn't a 14 police car escort excessive?

If you listen to the city, the county, the state and the nation, money is not there to cover most governmental bills. Limitations on how we use our money are in place through drastic budget cuts. Our governor has slashed millions from the budgets of the schools. I guess you could not tell it from the parade I saw yesterday. Considering the roads were so bad that Fort Wayne Community had to close ... did it make much sense that less than an hour and a half into the school day, racing police cars and buses to a circus make much sense?

I have nothing against the circus nor the kids going. I remember the value of a field trip - though I am not sure this is very educational. You can see an elephant in a book and understand that it is big and does not live in the woods behind your home, but alas, I am not sure many field trips were educational.

For the record, I do not want to hear how the out of town schools are low on money after what I saw yesterday - no matter who paid for it, if they did.

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