How Is the Economy Affecting Your School?
We’ve all been feeling the effects of our economy during this last year, some more so than others with all the news of job losses and foreclosures. But have you thought about how these same issues are affecting how your elementary school will be run in the upcoming school year?
If you think it’s too early to think about the 2009-10 school year, you’re wrong. Many school budgets come up for a vote in the early spring (ours is in May) and with state legislatures work these late winter months to pass their state budgets. And it stands to reason that if our government is spending billions of dollars to bail out banks, car manufacturers, and other citizens who face losing their homes, then some cuts need to be made and most likely that will involve education.
Our school district has been very active trying to get the word out for the better half of THIS school year that our state aid would be cut significantly for ‘09-’10. We already had to stretch our dollars because our last district budget vote was defeated and we operated on a contingency budget, which meant certain things had to be cut. At the moment I can’t even remember what was cut, so it must not be affecting my elementary school daughter.
What’s frightening, however, are the proposed cuts for this upcoming year. We’ve already been told that our state will cut educational spending by millions of dollars so if our district gets even just a fraction of last year’s allotment, that will be a miracle. So, essentially, the burden of running our very large school district will be borne by the residents and taxpayers. For a district that has a large number of retirees and that has experienced double digit school tax increases for the better part of 10 years (since we moved here) there are not too many happy campers.
We’ve also been told that our elementary school will lose 3 teachers, making the class sizes around 29-31. Even though this is written into the teachers’ contract as being acceptable, that is too many kids or one classroom; so some kids will be at a clear disadvantage being in such a large classroom. With so many different personalities, how can a teacher give 31 students the attention that each one needs? My daughter had 19 kids in both her kindergarten and 1st grade classes. It will be quite a shock to walk into 2nd grade with an extra 11 kids in the classroom!
And let’s not rely on the teacher’s aides because the majority of those positions will be cut next year. Many of the aides have already gotten their pink slips.
To help spread the word about the severity of the cuts we are facing, our school board is having many open forum meetings at most of the schools in the district to hear the concerns and to hopefully find some creative ways to earn some of this lost state aid. I still need to attend a meeting but no doubt will hear an earful at our PTA meeting this week.
The other scary thing about the situation, if I sit and think of our state as a whole, is that there are much poorer school districts than ours. I wouldn’t consider our district affluent but we’re also a far cry from inner city districts. If we’re facing the loss of teachers and increased class sizes, what kind of changes will these less fortunate districts have to contend with in September?
Are your districts talking about severe cuts for the upcoming year? Do you have any creative ways of cutting costs? Would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. This is something that will affect all of us but hopefully we can all learn from each other, too.
photo credit: Bah Humbug
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4 Responses to “How Is the Economy Affecting Your School?”
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School Lunch Reform
Our schools are so underfunded already I don’t even want to think about what next year will bring.
Our classrooms are packed, and those teacher’s aides that people think we can go without are what really hold the classroom together. Taking them out of the equation is just going to make things more difficult all around.
Loretta’s last blog post..Great Coupon Code for Petco!
Our schools hit hard in California too.
Since I’m a school custodian, I worry about it also.
I’m trying to help out three local schools in my home town. by donating 10% of my profits from my children books.
[...] this sound crazy? Perhaps but I think the collapse will affect the schools first (it already has). If Dad is unemployed, he might consider a year of homeschooling as a way to educate his kids [...]
[...] Last year we were warned that if the school budget didn’t pass, our students would lose teacher aides and those who still had their jobs would have their hours drastically cut. Did the high school or middle schools lose aides? Not that I’m aware of; the cut in teacher aide hours only happened at the elementary school level. [...]