Going to school

We went to Immokalee this morning. It shares a county and school district with Naples. Farm workers are organizing there (check out the CIW website and join the boycott- or at least say you are if you don't eat at Burger King). Matt's aunt works at one of the elementary schools in town, and she gave us a tour. Before going to Immokalee I taught the kids about farm workers, migration, inequality, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and on and on. As we drove out to Immokalee this morning, we saw the citrus groves and tomato fields with workers in school buses on their way to pick food for all of us.

Then, surprisingly, the school was nice. They are in the process of remodeling. The rooms that had not been remodeled yet had data projectors, computers, were large enough, bright, pleasant, and didn't have too many kids. There is a large library, plus art and music classrooms. 98% free lunch & breakfast kids in a nice facility, working seemingly at grade level. It was heartening. Calvin commented that the kids didn't look as poor as he expected, which we probed to understand. Finally, we realized that with the pictures he'd seen on the CIW website of the farm workers' homes, he expected third world poverty at the school. Wonderfully, there wasn't.

Then we heard as we drove home that the voters yesterday voted to cut property taxes. The tax cut was opposed by school boards and city officials for the toll that it will take on services, including schools. On the other side, "the tax-cutting push was a response to exploding property values that jacked up tax bills mainly for owners of second or vacation homes, businesses." Seriously. This is the choice that is best for society?

The conclusion to the day... We skipped going to a park and having lunch in Immokalee because Calvin seemed to have developed an illness while we were at the school. It turns out that he has one of his low-grade fever illnesses. He was sick enough that he chose to skip the beach when Matt and E went, but not sick enough to skip a quick dip in the pool. Hopefully, he'll be fine in the morning.