According to E-School News, the economy has begun to rebound, and K-12 education leaders say they are still facing serious budget shortfalls for the coming school year. These cuts threaten their ability to implement new technologies, raise the quality of instruction in their classrooms, and close achievement gaps among students.
According to the Chicago Public Schools Budget Briefing for 2011, many school programs budgets were cut by 12 million. The program cut also affected teachers taking personal time. Many teachers looking for overtime and paid vacations will no longer get paid for either.
Eric Fray is the assistant principal at Audubon Elementary School located in the Roscoe Village neighborhood of Chicago.
“This year, we had to cut our bilingual teacher to half time a day. The school board said we only need her for a half day,” says Fray.
According to the Briefing, bilingual education funding has gone down 21 million this year. The school year starting budget was $5.328 billion. This all means that young children who are just learning English will not always have a teacher with them on a regular basis in class.
Crowded classrooms have always been a problem within public school systems. In 2011, teachers will have to deal with as many as 37 students per classrooms, again according to the Briefing.
After-school programs also play a huge role in budget cuts. Many schools have tutoring programs to help students with their class work.
“Our teacher programs were only half cut this year. The programs we have this year are: yearbook, poets, journalism and science club,” says Fray.
Many schools like to have bake sales to make up some of the money they lost in funding. At Fray’s school, they sold something else sweet. “This year, the eighth graders sold candy so they can take an eighth grade trip,” he says.
Although the economy appears to be improving, public schools continue to take a big hit. Different school boards need to find a way to come together in order to keep more money in the schools. Schools across the country can’t afford to keep cutting programs, while losing good teachers. The students can’t afford it either.
