“The Internet has made them totally obsolete.”
It has. And what this district is proving is that you don’t need actual certified, union members to be in the classroom.
This means districts can just purchase on-line lessons and hire non-union aides to monitor the students and keep them on task. No need for teachers anymore except for gym class and music and art.
Even the monitoring can be done remotely—I remember many years ago we had computer classes where the computer could track where you were in the lesson, if you needed help etc.
The excuses for the existence of schools are getting weaker and weaker by the day...
As for “specialty” items, those can be done remotely as well.
It just requires a small amount of planning and interest in doing so.
Imagine the school budget was zero and was going to stay zero. How would kids in town get educated? If you look at the issue that way, solutions become clearer.