Posted 11:00 PM by Susan Darst Williams

TWO HEAD-SCRATCHIN' SPENDING ITEMS
FROM FREMONT PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The Fremont Public Schools are going to spend $5,000 for a motivational speaker for faculty and staff next school year, to start the school year off right, according to the Fremont Tribune.

The money will come from a grant from the Lester A. Walker Fund of the Fremont Area Community Foundation.

The key here is not that the donor wanted to do something nice for the schools. That's awesome. What's key is what else school officials could have steered that $5,000 toward . . . just think what $5,000 extra could have provided for students.

You'd think an awfully inspiring and peppy talk could be had for free from some of these public-spirited people always in the news aping about education . . . and the five grand could go for the kids.

The other item, also reported by the Tribune, is that the public schools there are going to subsidize kids who want to go to Camp Invention this summer. Taxpayers will be picking up $140 of each camper's $190 registration fee for the weeklong summer camp, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. June 23-27.

There were reportedly 110 camperships available, so that represents a taxpayer subsidy of $15,400 for the summer school program.

The camp will employ Fremont Middle School geography teacher Jason Chicoine and several other district employees, among others and is open to second through sixth graders.

The question is: haven't we been reading that the Fremont Public Schools is just as worried as the other school districts in Nebraska about state aid and how on earth will they manage to make ends meet?

Do you suppose school officials might subsidize a few taxpayers to attend another kind of Camp Invention -- a camp where taxpayers invent louder loudspeakers through which to state loud and clear that the district should cancel this boondoggle immediately, if not sooner?