No Chocolate Milk for You

The Board decided to accept the dairy contract with only white milk and promised all kinds of vegetarian options. I’m not a math major, but when 12 grams of sugar are coming from the milk itself, we’re not going to solve the obesity epidemic–except for the fact even more kids will avoid lunch. As it stands now, my 10 year old (who brings her lunch) waits in line with her friends, and when they find out what is still left, they’ll often get out of line and not eat at all. I’m still not a fan of the school lunch program or the notion that the school board is spending valuable time dealing with chocolate milk and 77 cents worth of sushi (doesn’t cat food cost more than that?), but obviously pandering to the Food Police is easier than solving the systemic problems of balancing the needs of its students with the demands of its unions. Chocolate milk is obviously an easier foe than facing the fact you’re a jobs program first and an educational system second.

And with just a week and a half more of school, I’ll slowly ramp up my panic on where I will be looking for middle school for my daughter. Our neighborhood school is a GreatSchools rated “1,” a PI school for years, and for us, it’s just not an option. She’s in a great school via open enrollment, so imagine my surprise when she got into Balboa last June for fourth grade. We turned it down, wanting her to finish with her friends, but it puts us in the same quandry as other folks–not enough points to guarantee magnet placement so we have to consider all options. We’ll have all of fifth grade to figure it out, but I’m in a wait-and-see mode because I want to see what cuts are still coming down the pipeline. Right now, we’re definitely looking at SAS, open enrollment, and even independent study out in Oak Park. So expect to see a lot about school choice as I talk myself down from the ledge.