If the General Assembly members ever needed evidence as to why the state needs to repeal the Caruolo Act, which allows school districts to sue municipalities for more money, they should have been at the School Committee meeting last Wednesday evening.

There, in a last ditch effort to save sports and music programs, an endless parade of students begged the committee to keep them intact.

The school department has run up a deficit upwards of $9 million over the last three years. The school department, upset with being level funded from the administration, turned to a Caruolo Action lawsuit, instead of crafting a budget that lived within the means of what the council and administration deemed they could afford to provide.

Make no mistake about it, it’s hypocritical for the city to increase its own side of the budget while level-funding schools, but at the same time, the school department ought to live within its means.

The schools lost the lawsuit, but that never solved anything. Instead, the schools just broke out the red pens and kept going. The schools currently owe the city $8.4 million. Add to that the $1 million deficit from this year and that’s more than $9 million in red ink.

The cuts to the school sports would result in consolidating 17 teams between East and West and eliminating the co-op girls’ hockey team. Youngsters who otherwise would have been good enough to make their school’s team will now be cut due to these consolidations – not a lack of talent. Where’s the justice in that?

But here’s the kicker: the reduction in the school department’s sports budget would realize a savings of $130,000. The reduction in the music budget would realize a savings of $675,000 between now and 2014.

This is the classic example of chasing dimes to get dollars. We’ve got a $9 million problem here, not an $805,000 problem. It’s true that every bit helps, but wouldn’t it be better for students to try that penny pinching elsewhere?

The School Committee maintains that the auditors ordered by the Superior Court and selected by the school department and administration say the school department must cutback sports and music – and thus their hand is forced.

But the financial problems in the school department are clearly not the consequence of spending too much money on sports. For the auditors to identify those areas alone seems laughable.

The cynics amongst us will undoubtedly say that the proposal to cut sports will force the City Council’s hand and increase its allocation to the school department. At this point, it’s getting harder to ignore those critics.

The school department’s budget proposal doesn’t specify the percentage of money that’s spent on salaries and benefits, but as Willy Sutton would say, “that’s where the money is.”

With that in mind, maybe the school department ought to take Councilman Robert Pelletier’s (Ward 4) suggestion to go back to the bargaining table with the unions to garner more concessions for taxpayers in this economic climate – as opposed to taking it out on the students.

In any event, it shouldn’t amaze astute followers of government that when times get lean, the cuts always seem to trickle down to those with the least amount of political power – the property taxpayer and students.