Speak Out
Hey, juniors - it’s June, your school year is wrapping up. How would you feel if your high school career was ending as well? Utah State Sen. Chris Buttars thinks he has a cure for senioritis – eliminating 12th grade from all high schools across the state. Senior year, he says, is good for “nothing but playing around.” The senator proposed this move before the state legislature earlier this spring. He says it will help close Utah’s $700 million shortage in budget money by saving about $102 million a year. “You're spending a whole lot of money for a whole bunch of kids who aren't getting anything out of that grade,” Buttars said. “It comes down to the best use of money.” When reaction to Buttars’ plan skewed negative, he offered a different version; rather than eliminating 12th grade altogether, make it optional for students who have completed a core number of credits. This would save the state about $60 million a year.
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Student Voices staff
Don’t mess with the homemade chocolate cupcakes and Rice Krispies bars. Outraged parents in New York City recently took up spatulas and spoons to protest a city crackdown on school bake sales, those ubiquitous and often lucrative fund-raisers. Getting the figurative pie in the face were city education officials, who say they have to balance fund-raising needs with the child obesity epidemic. Forty percent of the children in city schools are obese or overweight, they say. And they need to know, and control, the nutritional content of snacks sold in schools. Homemade goodies obviously don’t come with such labels.
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