Schools should be held accountable for wise spending

Schools with a higher percentage of low-income families should receive more government funding, but only for certain things.

High school lunches cost $3.60 this school year in the Mat-Su School District, and lunches have increased in price over the years. Students can apply for free or reduced-price school lunch, but even some students who need it don’t receive reduced-price lunch. I have had this dilemma: I don’t qualify for a reduced or free school lunch, but I can’t afford $3.60 a day to buy lunch.

If the school had more government funding, it could use that to reduce school lunch prices for all students. Then, every student would be able to have an affordable lunch.

Another pricey aspect of high school is participation in high school sports. Many high school sports cost $100 or more to join, and not everyone has a spare hundred or two to spend on a sport. According to Houston High School Activities Director Norman Bouchard, money from student fees goes to various things.

“One hundred dollars goes to everything from uniforms to referees, and $50 goes to medical equipment, replacement equipment and other things like that,” Bouchard said.

If low-income schools were granted more government funding, some of that money could go into sports equipment and uniforms. This would cause the price for sports to go down and allow more students to join.

Unfortunately, the issue with more government funding is that schools could use the money in unwise ways. Take Houston High School for example. One of my teachers said she couldn’t print many copies this year because of the price of ink, yet our district spent thousands on a new bus parking lot.

This parking lot was created to allow both Houston High and Houston Middle schools to end at the same time with a common loading area for both schools. This may seem like a good idea, but the new parking lot has become more of a problem than a solution

Earlier this December, three buses got into an accident while trying to park in this lot on an icy day. Although there wasn’t much damage except for a scratch here and there, this accident would have been prevented if Houston had just stuck with the original bus routine.

Additionally, in the winter this parking lot is not sufficiently maintained.

“I maintain it anytime it was contracted,” said HHS custodian Jimmy Scott.

The day of the bus accident, the contractor did not say the parking lot had to be maintained, according to Scott. On this particular day, the back lot where buses parked last year was not icy; yet the buses used the extremely slippery new lot instead.

I don’t feel like slipping on the ice and breaking a leg when exiting the bus and walking the extra distance to school.

Another example of unwise spending is the cost of lights on the Houston football field. When you think about this, you have to wonder if this is really necessary when all the sports played on the field are during months when it isn’t dark. According to Bouchard, this purchase did not come out of the school’s own money. Regardless, administrators could have asked for a grant or for donations for something that is more important, like updating outdated textbooks, adding more computer labs for student use or paying for the cost of ink to make copies for educational purposes.

Unwise spending like this is why the government has to choose carefully when handing out more money to schools. The money could go to great reasons and help a lot of students; it’s up to the school on whether they want to spend the money for good or for pointless things.

Holly Brett is a third year journalism student at Houston High School. This is her first year writing for the Schools page.