Matt, you have to read between the lines, this is part of the dance, the govenor is going to take part of the scheduled increase in the education budget away and give all the districts just about what they got last year, without their inflation increase for raises and such they will all be making some cuts. The political machine has branded this a “cut” and every district is putting out “sky is falling” predictions. It’s not thier fault, it’s what they do. The temecula school closure isn’t so much about money as it is about enrollment shortfalls due to the slow construction of homes. There are five elementary schools south of 79 alone. Redhawk has two, vail, morgan and wolf creek each have one. There aren’t any kids living on the vacant lots in Morgan and Wolf but the district made the developers build the schools first. Some of the schools have only two classes per grade and 300 students, half the enrollment before two new schools were opened in the last few years. Closing one and consolidating the students into four is just cheaper (electricity, maintenance, support staff, etc.) and there is a school every half mile. they should close one of those schools until the homes are completed but they wont, they will find 5 million bucks laying around, like the article indicated, I wish i could find money like that. The threat is always to close schools and affect classrooms, in the end it will be administration where the cuts will be or the money will come but nobody cares about admin so they say it will hurt the classes. This happens in all forms of government and is often referred to as a kabuki dance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki_dance

Should your government try to be efficient, NO!, they should do whatever they have to keep what they have and try to get more, whether they need it or not. If two schools are only half full an they are a half mile apart, it makes sense to consolidate.

Whenever Washington D.C. cuts the park budget, the parks department shuts down the Washington monument so the public screams at the lawmakers and reinstates the funding even though the cut had no affect on the monument or their ability to operate, this is also known as a classic kabuki dance. It’s a game matt, the newspaper is just one of the tools used in this game, don’t fall for it.