One thing's for sure: although money doesn't solve all problems in our schools, we surely could do quite a bit with what's being spent on Iraq.

Interestingly, our school taxes went down by about $500 this year (just paid last week). But I'm really happy with the quality in my son's kindergarten class so far. the 15-1 student/teacher ratio is fantastic. They've hired four kindergarten teachers to make that possible, and I think it really makes a difference.

On a side note, we had a big fiddle recital for three area elementaries tonight. Our son has been learning about 1 new tune per week, and taking another 2-3 to play comfortably and up to speed. Last week, he said, Daddy I want to play my song. I said, your song? You mean what we learned last week? Actually, he had made one up. It was a fragment, but I liked that he saw the possibility of doing so without having been prompted. It was kind a proud moment that's nice to share.

The older kids added a couple of klezmer tunes to the Christmas program that went down very well. Cool stuff.