Hundreds of students walked out of Boston public schools Monday to protest "budget cuts." WBUR reports that "cuts" is a definitional question: "Although the schools budget from the city of Boston is $13.5 million more than last year, the district is still facing a deficit due to rising expenses."
It says something about the schools and public discourse that spending $13.5 million more on them is described as "cuts." Also noteworthy is a list of the "cuts" circulating on the web. At one school, the Arabic program is being eliminated. Another is reportedly cutting a "proposed" "African American History AP class." Again, the stuff being "cut" either doesn't exist yet or is something that never would have existed years ago. That doesn't necessarily mean it isn't worth doing, but it does put the protests about "cuts" in perspective.