School Budget Committee Votes To Eliminate 4th-Graders Entirely

BELLEVUE, WA—Calling the move “the best path forward” for the school as a whole, representatives for the Bellevue School District budget committee told reporters Monday that they had voted to eliminate fourth-graders entirely. “While we care for all of our students, we believe the school’s budget will be much healthier if we cut all fourth-grade students currently enrolled at Bellevue Middle School,” said spokesperson Ginni Preston, adding that because each student could cost over $10,000 a year, eliminating all 500 was a clear and easy choice. “Sadly, with each fourth-grade student sucking up valuable finite resources like teachers, textbooks, lunches, and desks, we’ve been operating in the red. Even though parents may not like it, eliminating an entire elementary school grade will vastly improve our school for the remaining first, second, third, and fifth-graders.” At press time, Preston added that after they saw the improvement in test scores that eliminating fourth-graders achieved, the committee also opted to cut all other students at the school as well.