Practicum Action Inquiry: Budget Cuts and Education in the State of Texas

They must be aware of the current state of the school, be imaginative in launching new and relevant initiatives in a way that can get the whole school behind the idea, be diligent in keeping track of these initiatives and their progress.

Our political leaders struggle to understand the impact they have on the policies they put into place to improve public education. We see mandates that are unfunded and have a significant impact on a school district’s budget. Special education continues to be an area rich with policy and yet additional dollars are not included in the decisions made for implementation. Title one funding is an area that falls into a blurry area of policy for school districts. In our district, we have policies for fiscal responsibility in our spending procedures and yearly audits to be sure we are spending our money in a proper way.

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.

Education issues in Texas can affect several areas in the Lone Star State. Texas is the leader of all 50 states in teenage birth rates. This number alone can affect high school graduation rates which also trails other states in the rank of 41 of 50 states, and can be partially to blame for Texas’ last place position of the percentage of population over age 25 with high school diplomas. These low graduation rates affect social issues by forcing people into low income jobs, housing which usually leads to high poverty levels. Texas should be worried about the future that this information predicts because if nothing is done to correct the issue it will only get worse. In order to improve this reality Texas needs to be better equipped to help with

High quality education is a must in U.S. since it means that today's youth will be prepared with the knowledge needed to tackle our nations issues. When looking from state to state, you will notice how various states differ in how well they are able to educate students. Maryland was ranked number one in the nation by having a high grade point average amongst students and an equally high graduation rate. Texas on the other hand had the worst grade point average and graduation rate. The reason for this is the amount of funding that goes into public schools. Maryland puts a lot of funding into their public schools which helps raise grade point averages. Meanwhile Texas puts little funding into public schools and

Since the 2008 economic recession, public schools have experienced drastic cuts to funding, Paw Paw High School included. With my high school being forced to make curriculum adjustments in order to accommodate its depleted budget, I suffered great shortfalls. Due to the elimination of teachers, I had increased class sizes and no longer received the one-on-one attention in the classroom. Also, the electives that I had looked so forward to taking in middle school were no longer provided once I made it to high school. I am grateful, however that unlike other schools, Paw Paw has not had to implement a four-day school week as a means to stretch budgets as far as possible. I have read that rising costs, depleted emergency federal aid, and

In order to implement this policy, responsibility will be bestowed upon the “Foundation School Program” and the Texas state Legislature (Grusendorf, 2015, pg.2). These two groups play the most vital role in changing and implementing the new “state formulas” (Grusendorf, 2015, pg.3). Both will work together in creating and agreeing to the new state formulas. We will review the formulas every year and decide if funding is truly being distributed with equity. Only if they are not then will both organizations have to re-write the formulas to improve upon them.

Public Education in Texas originated in the 19th century. Initially, when Texans created the Texas Declaration of Independence, they highlighted the failures of the previous Mexican government in creating a public education system. No official plan was set forth until 1845, when the state set a permanent school fund of 2 million dollars.

Every school district has board meetings throughout the school year. Unfortunately, many parents, community members, & school personnel do not attend such important meetings because they don’t realize or understand the importance of such board meetings or how informative they can be. According to Kankakee School District (2017), the Kankakee School District Board of Education is composed of seven elected members, who were elected by the citizens of Kankakee to serve a four-year term that do not receive no salary for they services, are committed to ensuring a quality of educational excellence that will enhance the opportunities and challenges facing today’s student and additional responsibilities that board members include are selection of the District superintendent, developing general polices according to wishes of the community and requirements of law, hiring school personnel based upon recommendation of the Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent of Personnel, adopts salary schedules, approves funds to finance school operations, must adopt and review the annual operating budget for the District, and setting the property tax levy to produce adequate funds to meet the District’s financial needs ranks among the responsibilities of the Board of Education (Retrieved from https://www.ksd111.org/domain/68). For this paper, the Kankakee School District board meeting will be used, information learned from board meeting, use of

Education is one of the most important things that the government spends their money on. It shapes our country now and for in the future. Education is more about learning for how to solve for ‘x’ as is it to develop life skills that will help during a person’s whole lifetime. Education helps a person learn right from wrong, build relationships with others, develop organizational skills, think critically, along with so many other benefits. None of this would be possible for schools to provide for their students without proper funding needed. While it is understood that the country is going through a budget crisis, cutting the education budget is not the way to go. With all of the money being taken out of the education

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

Another step is to develop training and support plans to give to all teachers. That better enhance the skills they need to work better with students of all backgrounds and to teach with the materials that are needed.

Public education in Illinois relies heavily on the state government to provide funding and financial resources to help provide an education to students. In recent years, K – 12 education has seen many financial and budget cuts statewide. This fiscal year might see many schools having to close partway through the school year because they cannot afford to keep the school open for students. The superintendent (Dan Cox) of the Staunton, Illinois school district says, “We keep telling our people to do more with less, but we can’t do that anymore. And that’s not something we should expect or accept” (Long). He calculates that without the funding from the state of Illinois and including the property tax dollars that would come into the

As an educational leader, I must have a vision and mission statement for the school that is known by the staff, students, and parents. The vision will address the needs of the students academically, emotionally, and socially. According to DuFour (1998), “ Those who seek to transform their school into a professional learning community as characterized by an environment fostering mutual cooperation, emotional support, personal growth, and a synergy of efforts.” The leader must implement a plan that will cultivate the success of all students. The mission will speak to the direction of the school community stating what the desire goals are. The building leader will lead by example. High expectations will be communicated and encourage by staff and students. The educational leader of a school must develop a culture of team work to create a climate that is student friendly. The vision mission and goals of the leader should be transparent. The establishment of common goals is the first step. Without common goals, sustainable progress will be impossible and thus everyone will have lower expectations. The students, parents, and staff should be commented to the goals of every child reaching their full academic potential. The school environment should speak to goal setting and high expectations for all students and staff.

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.