Budget Cuts In Public Schools

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.

I believe that education is essential to America’s future generations and how well we can compete with the rest of the world in diverse fields, therefore school funding should not be cut. The budget for the Department of Education has been reduced and cut in many ways. Some solutions the government thought they had found, such as the No Child Left Behind Act, turned out to increase the budget, rather than reduce it. The cutting of teachers’ unions and reduction of class sizes have also been suggested to reduce budget. Although some of these sound easy and appealing, they won’t necessarily help reduce the Department of Education’s spending.

Public school funding is unfair and unequal in most states. However, more concerning is out of the 49 million children in public schools, students living in poverty are affected the most. There are wide disparities in the amount spent on public education across the country, from a high of $18,507 per pupil in New York, to a low of $6,369 in Idaho (Baker, Sciarra, & Farrie, 2015). The question that all stakeholders should be asking is school funding fair?

Every teacher tries their hardest to cater to every student in each of their classes. Anytime I hear them talking it is always about what they can do for this student or they’re asking another teacher on what they do for a certain student. Everything they do here is in order to see the student succeed. It may not be easy all the time but it gets done if everyone does their part. I do believe the students need to appreciate this school more than they do. They act as if this school has nothing to offer and does nothing for them. What they don’t realize is how easy they have it here, they get fed reality piece by piece unlike students in other places who get thrown into a huge abyss of confusion and told to fend for themselves. They get after-school tutoring from teachers who stay late to help and content recovery when they haven’t done well on their assignments; I don’t of many schools who do that for their students.

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

As most people will agree, education is an important factor to succeed. Educated people in a society stand for a successful society. The issue in Illinois is the universities aren’t being provided the funds promised to them by the Illinois State government. The schools are being forced to make budget cuts. The teachers at the schools are being forced to take furlough days, which are day they have take off with out a pay. The cause of all of these actions is due to the major debt the State of Illinois is in. The money the state should be paying the universities, the state is using it on other items. University of Illinois is one of the schools that has to take budget cuts. This is unfair to the University of Illinois because the State

Pennsylvania has strict limitations on funding schools. Local governments heavily influence the funding that does occur. The school district governance in Philadelphia has been a subject of debate. A large majority of the revenue that the local government receives is from property taxes. In the year 2000 property taxes regarded for almost $10 billion of the revenue in Pennsylvania. That was 30 percent of the total revenue that the local government received and 70 percent of all local government tax revenues. Property taxes accounted for roughly 85 percent of the overall tax revenues for Pennsylvania school districts in 2000. Practically half of all the school district’s revenue came from the compilation of property taxes. The one thing

Public education is under funded, especially in the state of Alabama. I attended public school in the state of Alabama and I experienced this first hand in my elementary and high school classrooms. Low funds for the arts department and many basic school necessities are just some of the areas that are affected by the low funding. In the 2012-2013 school years, Alabama had over 744,637 students enrolled in a total of 1,637 schools. Alabama’s school funding has gone down 14% since 2008. Many school systems have to spend additional money from local revenue on top of what the state provides because it is not enough. Alabama public schools are under funded and it is a problem that is affecting classrooms across the

Experienced teachers are on average more effective in raising student achievement than less experienced counterparts. It is said that teachers do better as they gain experience. In If You Build It, Matt has very good knowledge in designing so he could work with the students hands-on. He also gained knowledge and experience while also teaching other students. Emily on the other hand was the organizer. She was hand-on with building and going around to the students making sure they were working efficiently. Both Matt and Emily gained experience through their many months of working with these high school students. In order for there to be good teachers the state needs to cooperate with the teachers. The salaries must be adequate and the teachers must have an expectation that as they gain experience their salaries will rise in line with what they would normally earn in comparable professions. Teachers would most likely leave if they feel they are in poor working conditions. A principal can improve these conditions and retain good teachers. In If You Build It, the superintendent of Bertie County High School was very creative and ready to work to improve the school with his bright ideas. Unfortunately, before the school year started he was fired because the county couldn’t afford him and his ideas. Politicians and states have this idea of teachers and principals and scapegoats

They have to cut programs to save money for more important uses. Not many schools in our district still have an orchestra, band, and choir due to lack of funding. Schools are removing influential groups that could help students figure out their future plans and who they are. The building should not suffer either. Proper maintenance and care must be taken to create a safe and appealing learning environment. Most of these problems could be fixed by inducting a smarter budget. Activities and learning do not need to suffer any longer. It’s time to put an end to the money situations here at

All of this had nothing to do with the socioeconomic status of the residents of the school district. This had everything to do with taking extreme and often ridiculous measures in an attempt to put on a façade of fiscal responsibility. Oftentimes the harebrained ideas backfired, and caused taxpayer dollars to be wasted.

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

In the Pennsylvania state, many schools face a budget crisis, which is fear to think about it to close schools, and leave their mission incomplete. According with Dr. Mumin’s article, “Superintendents; forum: Budget crisis many force some school districts to shut down” state, “the lingering days of not having a fully funded formula is causing great anxiety and paranoia across the commonwealth from school districts not having enough funds to pay bills and make payroll, which could result in a shutdown in the near future” (3). School districts want an answer to their prayer on the funding amount. The

According to the article from the Huffington Post, the students who are impacted greater from these budget cuts are students from lower income households. This is so heartbreaking, being that school may be the one place students are exposed to these types of creativity, hard work, dedication, and passion. Programs that are eliminated ignore a plethora of students’ talents and abilities. Defunding these programs is overlooked or overturned, however it is crucial to many students’, if not all students’, education.

Satirical tirade aside, schools need to offer classes that teachers want to teach. One of the main reasons why CNA’s and other high-stress employees “crack” and turn towards violence is that they are no longer satisfied with this job. Although being a teacher isn’t the same, both professions have to care for needy individuals that either don’t seem to understand or aren’t capable of understanding so the metaphor seems ever so slightly fitting. The main point being that passion flows. Having courses that teachers are excited to take and want to teach and inspire others is the hallmark of a good education. There is a reason college only hire teachers that are passionate in their subjects and are passionate about why they teach: this leads to a higher quality education. From a student’s point of view, one of the most inspiring and awe-filling experiences you can have is sparking a teacher’s passion. It’s the ability to ask a simple question and to have that spark into a discussion about their