Monday, August 28, 2006

Jordan School District Money for the Sandy Soccer Stadium: In what universe does that make sense?

I had to study modal logic as part of my education--and I use it surprisingly often. Basically, modal logic is a kind of logic in which the truth value of a statement depends on the Universe in which the statement is evaluated. For example, you could say that in Universe A the statement "the sky is green" is true and in Universe B the statement "the sky is green" is false. Obviously, we are more likely to inhabit Universe B (depending on what else is true or false in Universe B).

So when my sister out in Daybreak forwarded this little gem about using school money to fund the new Sandy soccer stadium despite explosive growth in her part of the Universe: deseretnews.com | Funds from Jordan District sought for soccer deal.

My first thought was: in what universe does that make sense? I am not convinced that such a universe is consistent with the one in which I currently live.

I'm all about soccer and my niece had a great time at the Real Madrid Real Salt Lake game, but school money on a soccer stadium? An Alpine School District Board Member (I think that's the right title) lives in my neighborhood, so I realize that school funding is often more complex than my brain is prepared to deal with, but I am having a hard time on this one. Fortunately, the Jordan School District Board Members also made cautious statements like: let's see the proposal, we are waiting on the numbers etc.

3 comments:

Anthony Barney said...

Yeah, when I heard that I was livid...and I don't even live in Sandy. How soon before other school districts start selling off their assets for entertainment venues? But, then I thought of one scenario in which this makes sense in our universe...some of the proceeds from the soccer stadium go back to the Sandy School District, like an investment. I don't know if that is that plan. But considering Sandy's water treatment plant in Draper that is built on land that could have provided immense tax revenues to Draper, which now will not be providing any money to Draper, I would not doubt that it's time for Sandy politicians to put down the joint and come back to our universe...there's a reason they call it DOPE.

Anonymous said...

Michael, thanks for the publicity on the absurdness of this idea.
Jen

Anthony Barney said...

Thank you for the clarification, now I can seethe properly. If you were to look in the Canonical Works of Stupidity and Absurd Political Maneuvering, you would indeed find listed: Eliminate Excess Educational Prowess by Selling Off Your Educational Budget - Is your constituency getting to smart for you? Are they starting to question your actions and motives, even after you told them it is for their own good? Then you have Excess Educational Prowess, and your problem is serious, you need to dumb the next generation down and quick by getting rid of some more school programs and eliminating some of the school budget.