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# Hawaii choir trip a lavish expense
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/hawaii-choir-trip-a-lavish-expense-editor/
- Published: 2005-01-17T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:01:03.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Malibu, #archive-import

*By Don Krok Santa Monica*

The rebuttal letters to my opinion on the upcoming Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District choir trip to Hawaii by arts coordinator Tom Watts and schools superintendent John Deasy’s letter (SMDP, Jan. 10, page 4), and the letter by Lisa Kannof of the Choral Parents Association Steering Committee (SMDP, Jan. 11, page 4) made little sense to me, and I am sure less to others who read them. I was surprised, I will admit, that the Jaffe-Davis CEPS camp hadn’t responded as well. To begin with, it is an undisputed fact that the city of Santa Monica, along with all other cities in the entire state, is under no obligation to give any amount of taxpayers’ monies to the school district. That is a state legislatively made mandate. All these people should be begging, threatening, coercing and talking drastic charter changing to our highly beloved Governor Schwarzenegger. The trips are viewed by others not part of the SMMUSD and the parents of these students as excessive and unnecessary. And what trips, if any, do all of the greater numbers of other students not in the choir or music classes enjoy? How can you justify these extravagant trips when out of the other sides of your mouths you keep crying that the schools have no funding for regular normal academic programs? That’s acting something like hypocritically isn’t it?

Lisa Kannof opens with: “Let the people know the real facts,” which we are waiting to get to by the way — financial assistance programs are a college thing, not high school. It is presumed that by that time students are generally weaned off of their parents financially, and usually to their relief, by taking some or all responsibility of paying for their own educations. Kannof goes on with what seems like a smoke and mirrors bit, when saying in choosing venues, that she/they hold the “educational value and musical expectations as top priorities, including international options.”

Wow wee Lisa, good for you, but that does not make proper what amounts actually to the open embezzling of any such taxpayers’ monies through City Council hands for you and your elite group to enjoy such pleasure trips cleverly designed as something necessary for the public to provide. The entire funding for these obscenely expensive student/parent vacations ought to be the sole responsibility of themselves. The Choral Parents Association has a steering committee to extract this scarce funding from the City Council? Get that. The SMMUSD, the choir, or its supporting staff, the parents, and CEPS, don’t have to accept any “invitations.” Certainly not the costliest of them, and especially not international invitations, which they know to begin with they cannot afford, and then beg the City Council to provide them with what they are short of their entertainment expenses.

Student diversity in choirs, bands, musical programs, etc., and the gift wrapping, coupled with stating that they intend to raise further future funds with a silent auction, car washes, etc., in no way justifies milking $25,000 from the City Council for such frivolous vacation trips that only a small percentage of the entire student body will enjoy — funds ought to be used to help all students, academically.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 17, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/011705.pdf?ref=smdp.com)