this is your brain on drugs, this is your school on tax cuts

Cribbed shamelessly from Scout at And Then :

What Lower Taxes Can Buy

High School Football will cost you $150. Baseball, $80.00. Middle school kids will have to pay $100, no matter what sport. But the worst off are the cheerleaders: $1,200 each to cheer on the $100.00 a head football team.

This isn't a hypothetical warning about a Bush world where taxes simply don't exist. It's the reality for students in Michigan, where budget cuts as a result of your tax "relief" is forcing 30% of its schools to charge for the expense of after school activities, according to the Detroit Free Press today.

What was the total of your tax cut? Because Windy Mack will pay $1,784 for her 14-year-old twins, Cassandra and Ashley Garcia, to be on the cheerleading and pom-pom teams at Canton High. She'll also pay $150 for her son's participation on the Canton High School football team. Then she'll pay another $80 when he plays baseball in the spring.

Now of course, you don't care about your money being used to fund kids who aren't yours to participate in sports you don't like. But consider this, from a Government study on the subject:

- The rate for juvenile crime peaks in the after-school hours. About 10 percent of violent juvenile crimes are committed between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Children are also at a much greater risk of being the victim of a violent crime (murder, a violent sex offense, robbery, or assault) after the school day, roughly 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

- "Latchkey" children are at a substantially higher risk for risk-taking behavior, including substance abuse. Youth ages 10-16 who have a relationship with a mentor, an important component of a quality after-school program, are 46 percent less likely to start using drugs and 27 percent less likely to start drinking alcohol."

Alternatively, you could buy yourself a new big screen tv and help fuel the Korean Manufacturing economy. Because lower taxes means more jobs. Right?