>>Ballou, a documentary film, follows the talented Washington, DC, Ballou Senior High School Marching Band, as they overcome a negative environment filled with guns, drugs and violence to overcome and uplift the community with music, dedication and personal sacrifice. Ballou High School is in Washington DC. They are on the way to a national band competition, but first they have to learn how to play instruments and overcome personal loses (sic) due to the United States governmental neglect of an impoverished community just 3 miles away from the US Capitol building. Political leaders and celebrities are featured in the film to show the importance of a small marching band that overcomes the negative environment and neglect to become an award winning band.
OK so it's the government's fault that they're impoverished...?
Well, of COURSE!!! This is a Hollywood product. Duh!
DC schools are funded to the tune of $16,000 per student per year. I don’t think the fedgov is neglecting them. Maybe a bunch of other people are however.
Impoverished?? Isn't the DC school system one of the most lavishly funded in the country? I seem to recall that they have a per-pupil spending rate north of 11K per year.
That's priceless. The federal payment to D.C. was well over half a million dollars when it was stopped about ten years ago in favor of an even more generous scheme whereby the federal government foots the bill for certain D.C. functions.
A billion here, a billion there... it's never real money when you are dealing with these whiners.
I guess they must be talking about some sort of guaranteed middle class minimum income because the DC public schools have one of the highest (if not the highest) school budgets in the country (in terms of $/student). Now what and whom those dollars are spent on...well, that’s another story.
Only the rich and powerful —and welfare recipients — can afford to live in DC.
I read that DC spends the most per pupil in the country and gets the poorest results.