And so it begins, the dreaded F word

I apologize for my lack of blogging lately.  I had pre-published the last Dewey one, so it's really been a while.  I did great on gluten-free/dairy free for the first 5 days.  Days 6 and 7 were a struggle.  I fell off the wagon considerably on Day 6; Day 7's indulgence was some cookies.  So far so good for Day 8. Healthy soup (without cheese...sigh) on the docket for dinner.   I need a GF/DF sponsor for Gluten Dairy Anonymous. 

Onto another subject.

I am fairly open that I'm a Democrat.  I don't mind paying taxes. Paying taxes avoids the free rider syndrome and helps pay for roads, defense, libraries, fire stations, etc. Make some rational (at least pretend that it's rational) system for calculating how much I owe that isn't crazy high, and I won't complain. 

I operate on that same philosophy in other aspects of my life. Most notably, Julia's school is a non-profit, and of course they subsist by charging tuition (she's not yet old enough for public school).  Make some rational system for charging tuition based on the cost of staffing, supplies, utilities, maintenance.  As long as it's not really expensive, I won't complain.  Got it?

The problem is that they want to do more than what they have charged in tuition this year.  They want to replace the cribs for the infants, replace the flooring in the bathrooms, and get new shelving.  How I would handle it is calculate the cost for all of these things: $1,500 for the cribs, $1,000 for the bathrooms, $500 for new shelving. $3,000 total.  $3,000 represents a ??? increase in tuition.  Let's say it represents a 2% increase since I can only make an educated guess.  If I were the ruler of the tuition gods, I'd say that we need to make a one-year only increase in tuition by 2% to pay for these specific projects. 

As we all know, I'm not the ruler of the tuition gods.  And how they're going about it just makes me want to scream. 

We are Fundraising.  Oh how I deplore fundraising.  Pimping out our kids to hawk stupid, overpriced crap that no one needs in order to hand over 25% of the proceeds for some noble function.  I do not philosophically understand fundraising.  It seems to mostly help the company who manufactures the stupid, overpriced crap, and only a small fraction helps the cause.  It just does not make any mathematical sense. 

Our first fundraiser this year (sigh) is selling hanging baskets of flowers.  I'm allergic to most flowers.  I don't even particularly like flowers.  They are selling each hanging basket for $30.  $10 of the $30 goes to Julia's school. 

It doesn't make any sense to pay $30 for something I don't even want just so the school will get $10.  It makes most sense just to pay the school $10 directly.  Right?  Which is why it would make even more sense to issue a temporary tuition increase. 

The other parents on the committee are so EXCITED about this flower fundraiser.  I am the lone one that sits there and thinks, "This is so stupid. It doesn't make any logical sense."