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bloke wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 8:01 am I have a band director friend who retired from a Tennessee band directing job at a fairly young age, and accepted a middle school job out in flyover country in Texas. The town actually had to buy some motels in retro fit them as little living units for school teachers who were willing to teach there but didn't want to commit to buying houses there. He reports to me that his inventory is vast, and he has shown me pictures and pictures and pictures and pictures of instruments and instruments and instruments and instruments. I don't think it matters whether or not there's money for this that can be taken from either the oil industry, or the corporate industry, or taxpayers. It's abusive to those who pay fees and taxes to the government to waste money like this. I don't like taxpayers money being wasted on stuff that I like anymore than I like wasting money on stuff that I don't care about.

Sounds a lot to me like that "use it or lose it" mentality, and probably higher up than just band director level.

Still (like in Mark's example) seventy new eastman horns in a middle school? thats not waste, its foreign aid!

Yeah, this middle school out in West Texas just had top of the line double horn after Double horn after Double horn and baritone saxophone after baritone saxophone after baritone saxophone and euphonium after euphonium after euphonium after euphonium and tuba after tuba after tuba after tuba and so on and so forth.

I don't care how much band directors who play French horn turn up their noses at single horns and how much tuba players turn up their noses at three valve tubas. That's certainly all that taxpayers should be expected to supply for middle schools, and only enough and not stacked to the heavens. Particularly now that everyone is suffering because their money is worth less than half of what it was, this should be the case, but it really has nothing to do with how much money anyone has or their ability to go on living an okay life with a whole bunch of it confiscated from them. No more should be taken from people then is deemed to be needed reasonably, and those in government who sincerely feel that unreasonable amounts of confiscation are reasonable should be dealt with and dismissed.