Steele: A $47,000 Piano but Kansas Schools Are Hurting?

Hey, if Billy Joel can afford one...

Hey, if Billy Joel can afford one…

There’s scarcely a media outlet in the world that has not wept a Niagara of tears for the alleged slashing and eviscerating of the Kansas education budget

The outcry is so universal that even Aljazeera America–typically mum about the slashing and cutting of things (like heads and throats) on its home court–fretted about “The rising anger over cuts and threatened further cuts.”

Apparently, this anxiety has not filtered down to the schools themselves. How else to explain Sumner Academy‘s decision to buy a $47,000 piano?

In defending the decision to the school board, Superintendent Cynthia Lane argued, “This will allow Sumner Academy to have a musical instrument of this caliber equal to the grand pianos in the other high schools.”

Oh, you mean the other schools already have their own $47,000 pianos?

Liberace had rhinestones on his...now that was excessive!

Liberace had rhinestones on his…now that was excessive!

I went to a perfectly good high school, but we did not even have a harmonica, let alone a piano. On Amazon you can buy first rate, new grand pianos for under $2500.

I guess though when you make $234, 971 a year as Ms. Lane does, 47K sounds like chump change.

And where else could a former special ed teacher make that kind of dough? If the District had to cut her salary in half, could Lane possibly find a better offer?

Reportedly, the board approved the piano along with a list of routine expenditures through a single vote. I can just imagine that list: toilet paper $89, chalk $112, copy paper $63, piano $47,070, pencil sharpener $12.

The staff just snuck it right in there.

As Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat fighting to protect school funding said, “Maybe there’s a perfectly valid explanation. But if you’re explaining, you’re losing.”

Exactly. Remember the Piano!

Rich Steele is a citizen journalist and head of the NSAAS (Non-Smokers Against Anti-Smoking).

http://www.mb-kc.com/
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10 Responses to Steele: A $47,000 Piano but Kansas Schools Are Hurting?

  1. Not quite says:

    Seems like a questionable purchase. But Al Jazeera America is actually very good, and has covered the beheadings, etc., closely

    The Truth About Beheadings | Al Jazeera America

    Al Jazeera America | ISIS Coverage

    • Lydia says:

      The old Al Jazeera in English did a better job of covering Latin America than any news outlet in the U.S. But its coverage of the Middle East was little more than propaganda for terrorism and tyranny.

    • Stephen Pack says:

      Indeed! Al Jazeera is openly funded by Qatar, which is one of the few countries in the region participating in the anti-ISIS coalition.

  2. admin says:

    Agree with Not Quite…

    This isn’t really news to anyone who’s been following things, but Al Jazeera news is the real deal

  3. One Guy says:

    Of course this happens in KC but does The Star dare cover it? Of course not. Heaven forbid Brownback has a point.

  4. Jack Springer says:

    The bought the piano because of peer pressure? Only is the weird state of kansas.

  5. Gravitas says:

    Great piece! thks!

  6. Sumner Academy prepare actual artists. They should not be performing to a concert hall with a spinet or parlor sized grand; a concert grand is called for. On the new market the prices start over a hundred grand; if what was purchased was in good condition, a bargain was had.
    http://www.piano4u.com/Piano/Detail/86

    • In our freshly remembered past, the Kansas City School District was sending scholars to France in order for them to learn how to Fence!

      Too bad it didn’t take.

      Rappers, ripping our rapiers at gun stores would be far more humorous and far less lethal.

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