Cute Baby Animals Continue Lay-In at Mayor's Office

Local Saint Louis news:

CUTE BABY ANIMALS continued their lay-in at the mayor's office today, dissatisfied with the mayor's position regarding a possible state take-over of the city's school district.

When asked if she was satisfied with her meeting with the mayor, Thumper, a brown bunny with white spots, hopped around the room, eventually settling in a corner, twitching her nose. A school board member accompanying the cute baby animals said that Thumper was obviously dissatisfied with the mayor's desire to have the state take over the failing school district.

The superintendent of schools said that the cute baby animals would continue the lay-in until the mayor changes his position. Fluffy, a fuzzy kitten, kneaded her paws and purred her agreement. Likewise, Rex, a basset hound puppy with big adorable eyes and little floppy ears, yelped his support for the elected school board.

OK, I am being unfair. The article, Students continue sit-in at mayor's office, is about older public school students who are protesting the possible take-over of the City of Saint Louis public schools by the State of Missouri. However, this action is actually staged by sitting school board members who are in danger of losing their control over the largest public school district in the state. This particular use of students in the protest is objectionable, but is getting media attention; and for its part, the media is buying into the propaganda that this is a student action.

However, I tend to agree, and don't want to see the state take over the school district; this would be a bad precedent, and could foreshadow future federal takeovers of schools, as is the situation in numerous countries. The city schools are indeed very troubled and need to be corrected, but it ought to be done from below instead of from above. It would be far better if the school district is broken up into many small pieces, with direct local parental control and funding. A strong revival of the Catholic schools would also spur improvement in the government schools.