Cope: End Of The Line For Idaho Ed?
"But seriously, graduates, you're getting out just in time, did you know that? Especially you band and choir kids. You may well be the last of your kind. Maybe at some point in the future, you can sit your little brothers and sisters down and tell them what a bittersweet blessing it was to have played the last Sousa march or sung in the last spring concert ever performed in Melba. Or maybe it's better they never find out what they missed. And let us pray there is no nascent Mozart or Wynton Marsalis or Joan Sutherland coming up through the Melba school system. What a tragedy that is, eh? Talent with no place to go? It was nothing personal, kids. The school board was only doing what it was told had to be done. The State Legislature informed them--along with every other school district in Idaho--that sacrifices had to be made"/Bill Cope, Boise Weekly. More here.
Question: What would you say to a graduating group of Idaho high school seniors, if you were invited to give a commencement address?