Budget Cuts

The United States has many conflicts, one of them is funding on public education. Despite the fact that funding on public education will not help students succeed academically with the money provided to the schools, every school deserves to get as much money because students will receive more proper education and will be more successful students in the future.

In today’s school systems, art and music classes are not mandatory to be taught. This makes them very vulnerable to budget cuts in struggling schools. It is estimated that more than eighty percent of schools nationwide have experienced cuts to their budgets since 2008 (Metla). Every child in America deserves a complete education, and a complete education includes the arts. Due to budget cuts, many students do not receive instruction in art and music and therefore do not receive a full education. Music and art classes in schools are just as important as core classes and should not be subject to budget cuts.

Chicago’s budget crisis has been one of the most unfortunate events of the decade. As a former student of Chicago Public Schools, myself and other students wanted the best for our education, but CPS school teachers and faculty are given the bad news that the City Council thinks we demand too much. Resulting in the Chicago Teachers Union strike of 2012, budget cuts, and many other events impacting things within the schools, it is no longer new to students, who also encounter what goes on outside, such as political news or neighborhood violence. Those in schools feel that it has been the place to be and to feel secure. Now that I have recently graduated, I have encountered a similar want for the best for my education through my college. As

Since last spring, Philadelphia school district leaders have been sounding the alarm about this year’s fiscal budget. Even after months of discussions and headlines, schools have opened with fewer resources than last year. On March 28th the School Reform Commission approved a lump sum budget which showed a need for an additional $220 million in revenue in order to provide schools with same resources as the “wholly insufficient” 2013-14 school year (McCorry). There will be many inadequate funding impacts on the quality of the education. Classroom resources would be stripped to untenable levels. The district would reduce as much as $2.2 million funding to the districts’ multiple pathways to graduation program which affects estimated 300 students. Another $1.5 million could be reduced from the elimination of preparation and professional development time for teachers at the district’s high needs promise academies. The district’s building maintenance budget could have reduction in amount of $9.6 million. Schools will be cleaned less frequently as a result. Building maintenance will also be curtailed as a result. District’s school police budget could also have reduction in amount of $2.4 million. School police officer vacancies will be unfilled, leaving an additional 27 elementary schools to share an officer.

During the activity, I chose federal budget cuts for domestic programs and foreign aid. I cut foreign aid in half. I do not think that America needs to help the world anymore. We have already helped out a lot and we should only help towards people that really need it, such as starving Africans, instead of funding wars overseas. I cut the pay of civilian federal workers by 5 percent. People in the federal government get paid more and more every year while citizens of our country get paid a lower minimum wage than a lot of other places in the world. I cut 250,000 government contractors. There are more contractors than government officials, which means more money spent on a government that does not fully have the needs of the country in mind. In addition, I chose federal budget cuts for the military. I reduced the number of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to 30,000 by 2013. We do not need the troops in Iraq or Afghanistan anymore. The war is over. Let the country figure out what it needs to do by itself. We helped create the uprising there, so we can help diminish it by reducing troops. I also chose federal budget cuts for healthcare. I enacted medical malpractice reform. I think it is important that our doctors research as much as they can about a procedure or a medicine, so that they can provide the proper care for a patient and reduce the risk of getting sued.

There is an abundance of importance in the public school system. Most successful careers start with elementary, middle and high school education. So it is safe to say it is vital to maintain a major funding for all public school’s systems across the country. Of course funding isn’t the only broken piece of a perfect school system because not every school is in an appropriate environment. There are many factors that follow what type of funding each school gets and also how much. Many schools are placed in low income or areas in poverty, this causes students to have harder learning environments. The question is what would be a strategy to fix the gap in public school funding and where and how do you spend it? This could be solved by smart public school allocation, better pay structure for

Instead, it is a solution with the help of all Illinois schools. Year by year colleges gets bigger and more advanced, along with newer facilities that attract more individuals to it. Renovations and newer facilities require a lot of money and this money is gained back by increasing tuition rates. According to John Schoen and his article "The Real Reasons a College Degree Costs So Much," college tuition has been increasing dramatically because of competition. To be more specific, all colleges want students to join their school and because of this, they build new facilities that they do not have the money for. This is the reason for why the tuition rates increase. Not only does this make it hard for students to afford college, but now without the MAP grants, students might not be able to go to college at all. As a solution, I think all Illinois schools should stop spending money on renovation and newer facilities for some time and use that money for student funding. When it comes to the funding, the school could either give out grants accordingly based on which individual needs it the most or they could lower the tuition for everyone. This is one of the solutions that may workout because it will be beneficial to both the student and the school itself. For example, the students will have an easier time paying for the tuition and will be able to continue their education. At the same time, the

Cutting their funding will lead to more health issues for people who used to go to them, thereby increasing costs on the public services providing by the government. It will end up costing more than actually not cutting their funds.

According to Shultz (2002), individuals and businesses fund the Federal Government through personal income and payroll taxes. With the unemployment rate at 8.1% as of January 1st, 2014 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014), created an overall shortage in both individual and business taxes.

In 2013, about 120 schools in Chicago were being considered on closing and out of those 129, 54 of them did actually close, according to William J. Kelly in chicagonow.com. Many schools might face difficult economic problems, but none have faced the problems public schools in CHicago face. CPS has had big budget cuts that affected all of the public schools, But it did not just affect the schools. It affected the students, the education they are receiving, and the staff as well. According to Rhodes, “In January, CPS laid off 227 central office and administrative employees. More than 400 positions, including vacant ones, were eliminated in that move.” That is a lot of jobs lost, and the unemployment rate in

In President Trumps’ 2018 Budget Proposal cuts, the one that concerns me the most is the Department Of Housing And Urban Development. It concerns me the most because it would be devastating to the large number of low income families across the United States of America that rely solely on subsidize housing programs issued by the government. Various agency programs help pay a percentage of families or individuals rent. Without funding these cuts will definitely have a negative impact on the poor, seniors, individuals with disabilities, low income families and the working class. Once this change begins to take an effect it will not be good for families or individuals that receive income benefits from SSI, welfare or wages from low paying jobs.

Oklahoma as of today is ranked 49th nationally in per-pupil expenditures and ranked 48th in teacher pay (Klein 2). Putting Oklahoma as one of the worst states to be educated in the United States. “Oklahoma is consistently ranked near the bottom for education funding and teacher pay” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth And Job Creation” 3). When there are state cuts that need to be made, the departments of education are one of the first that usually tend to suffer. Since the 2008 economic crisis, Oklahoma has continued to cut the budget for education; even though the economy has since then gotten better (Perry). Budget cuts in education affect all parts of the education process for the students. “Some school districts have ordered teacher layoffs and shorter sessions” (“Oklahoma Makes the Poor Poorer” par 4).Schools are now struggling to keep their heads above water. Each year from the budget cutting, schools have had to lay off teachers, cut entire programs, and have limited resources used to educate the students. Even the teachers’ retirement system is suffering, being one of the top poorly funded pension programs nationally (Ash par 3). Seeing as that the schools have to cut down classes and programs, administration has had no other choice than to increase class size, overwhelming teachers tremendously. “Oklahoma has 1,500 fewer classroom teachers and 40,000 more students since 2008-2009” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth

Today, however, it seems as if the public has lost track of the importance of a great educational system. The main issue today’s public schools faces are funding problems. There is not enough money allocated to support the growing needs of school across the nation.

Budget cuts in schools cause turmoil and stress among the students and faculty. Drastic changes in the budgets have caused schools to negatively impact the people around them. With the lack of funding, schools are facing difficult decisions on what to do to stay within their budget. Supervision is facing much scrutiny on how to handle the lack of funding in their school districts. A solution needs to be made to improve the distribution of funding to our schools in order to keep them operating and thriving for our children to obtain their education. Budget cuts in schools have shown negative effects on employee positions, supplies, extracurricular activities.

Public schools are in crisis, and not because of any shortages of public funds (more money is spent on public education than ever before, but with declining results). Many people like to think the problem with our schools is precisely that they are public: "Government schools" are run like the rest of