Politics is about “who gets what, when, and how.” - Harold Lasswell

My hometown school district at Rockford, IL has a $450 million annual budget for almost 27,000 students. However, our graduating class at Auburn High School was only one third the size of our original freshman class and was plagued by many issues such as gun violence, teenage pregnancy, etc. While I was at Auburn, I remember my teachers having to photocopy textbooks due to a lack of funding to buy new ones, the yearly firing of all non-tenured teachers to save on paychecks, and a year-long negotiation with the teacher union that resulted in a 4-year pay freeze and doubled health insurance premiums. Since then, my school district has set aside $123 million in a month to construction companies ($13 million of which went to a company of the Superintendent's wife).