Congratulations to Lassiter High School on the addition of their new performing arts center that is very impressive. However, this gives me a sense of frustration on several levels. On one level I am disappointed with the use of $14.9 million of SPLOST money to fund the addition in a time of economic stress.
On another level I see a disproportionate preference to fund the arts over science and technology.
As a mentor to a middle school group working on the future cities competition I have an opportunity to observe what our schools are doing in the technological area and see that the arts consistently get a higher priority even though our industry leaders constantly talk about the lack of engineering and science training for recent graduates.
The technology teacher I am mentoring is struggling with over 30 students per class due to reduced funds. I have to wonder why the $14.9 million couldn’t be used to get smaller class sizes that will allow our teachers to be more effective or wonder what could have been accomplished if used to fund improved classrooms and equipment for the science and technology areas.
Supporting the arts is certainly important, but let’s keep it in perspective.
Ed Steudel
Acworth
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