While parents who send their kids to the Price Lab school at U.N.I. say they will fight to keep the school open, they face a very tough battle. U.N.I. president Ben Allen announced Wednesday he is asking the state Board of Regents to close the 50-year-old school to save money. Allen offered little hope to the parents when asked about their effort Thursday.
“I think I’ve seen that done in other cases where people say we can raise money and it doesn’t come,” Allen said. “Quite honestly it’s unfair to them to think that opportunity is going to have a positive outcome.” He compares raising money to save Price Lab to the effort to save the Panther baseball team that was cut in due to budget problems.
“We kinda had that in the baseball decisions two or three years ago, when we said okay if you could raise, I forget how much money, no one got close to that. But I understand why they were saying it, I appreciate it, but I just don’t think it was realistic,” Allen said.
The Board of Regents has scheduled a meeting Monday at 1 p.m. to act on Allen’s request to close the Price Lab school, and other budget cutting proposals.
By Scott Fenzloff, KCNZ, Cedar Falls