Different Governor, Same Shit

2011 HOSA Winners

Twenty members of our school's chapter of Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) qualified to compete on the national level at this year's state conference.  For the past 4 years, our travel expenses were supplemented by a combination of fundraising monies, donations (especially from our school's alumni association, FACF) and state funds.  This year was to be no exception.  FACF came through with our request of $8400 and after careful consideration of the state funds that were slated for us, we asked each student to chip in their share of $350. 

On Wednesday morning, my co-advisor delivered a check to the travel agent which represented the balance of our airfare and on Wednesday afternoon I received an email notifying all HOSA advisors that Governor Abercrombie had ordered our state superintendent to reject any out of state travel plans that utilized state funds.  The $10,000 that had been put aside for our travel, half of it from the beginning of this school year, and that we had utilized when making our requests from the alumni and parents, not only could not be used for our travel, it was to be returned to the state immediately.

We are scheduled to leave on June 19th.  Our airfare payment is no longer refundable.  To take away these funds with no warning and after the date for fundraisers has passed is not right and not fair.  My students earned the right to compete on the national level, the money had been earmarked for their travel, all our budgeting was based around that fund and now it's gone.  Families in our community often live paycheck to paycheck and even the $350 that we asked them to contribute took some financial finagling for a number of them.  To ask them to contribute more this late in the game...it's just not possible.

Time and time again, the public school students of this state are given the short end of the state's financial stick by politicians who are elected by promising that schools will come first and it's time to clean up education. The only thing that needs to be cleaned up is the Governor's mansion.  The b.s. accumulating there is now three-governors high.