PETA is dishing up a partial solution to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District's budget shortfall: Don't cut teachers' jobs—cut animal products instead. We've offered to pay to place ads featuring our chick mascot, Nugget, on school lunch trays to encourage kids to go vegan:

And if the school board takes us up on our offer, we'll even throw in a lunch of meat-free chicken nuggets, vegan chili, and corn on the cob for one of the district's schools.

Besides keeping the school district in the black, the ads could help students and teachers keep their consciences in the clear. Going vegan is the number one way that people can prevent cruelty to animals and environmental destruction. 

We can't think of a better way for Cleveland to feed students and feed the pig.

parentdish / CC

Most of us are feeling the strain of the recession, but schools seem to be among the hardest hit. Teachers are left struggling to put together lesson plans and scrape up materials on a tight budget. Enter TeachKind, a humane-education resource for teachers, administrators, and librarians who want to help students become kinder, more compassionate individuals.

Now I may be a bit biased—I am the TeachKind coordinator, after all—but this is a program that no educator can afford to miss. Our TeachKind Web site offers free lesson plans and materials, including books, DVDs, videos, magazines, comic books, posters, stickers, and more. And as if that weren't enough, we offer step-by-step advice on how to combat issues involving cruelty to animals, and we have a new program that helps educators form effective animal rights groups at their schools.

I could go on about TeachKind for hours, but if you have any questions, e-mail us at Info@TeachKind.org. And if you know any teachers, be sure to tell them about TeachKind and encourage them to sign up for our Teacher's Network, which features new lesson plans, ideas for incorporating animal rights issues into the classroom, and information about exciting contests and giveaways.

Oh, and because you're probably wishing that you had become a teacher right about now, check out this video to get you through to 5 p.m.

Written by Liz Graffeo