For our school's science department, they were funded about $4000 dollars. Our school has about 2000 students. Whoopee. $2 dollars per student! Almost all of my classes sent home notices in the beginning of the year asking for parent donations for the most basic of things.

Because of budget cuts, classes are cut as well as teachers. Less and less electives are offered, and there's less time as well. I only have six periods a day, and in order to graduate, I'm *required* to take four years of English, three years of math, four years of history/gov, two years of PE, one year of fine art/language, half a year of health, and two years of science. In order to be eligible for any UC, I have to have four years of English, three years of math, two years (three rec.) of a foreign language, one year of fine art, two years of science. I have absolutely NO time whatsoever to choose a class I want to take. There are so many things I wish I could but simply cannot. I know a lot of my friends are fretting over what class to take. Between all those requirements as well as college, it's just so damn hard to pick out a schedule you'd like.

My school is rundown, as all are, I'm sure. My English teacher tells us of how instead of fixing the entire floor of her room (which needs fixing), they came in and picked out the most damaged tiles and simply replaced those. Her door is broken. Has been for about a week. And they still haven't fixed it. Our heating system is totally out of whack. It spews out hot air in the warm springtime and turns AC on us when it's in the middle of the winter. It's as loud as a lawn mower. For the longest time, when it was malfunctioning (freezing us all in December), they kept insisting they couldn't turn it off. Then one day, the ever constant hum was absent. I guess they could turn it off after all.

I've a sophomore now, and both years I've had schedule changes because some how they mess up and put too many students in one class or too few in another or whatever. My PE class had over 50 people.

It seems the first thing they go and cut is student funds. I know my school isn't one of the worst off, but as my English teacher often says, we deserve better.