The Importance Of Budget Cuts In Summer Schools

Getting rid of summer break would hurt a lot of students; they do not have the patience to go to school during the school year—taking away what is supposed to be their vacation could possibly break them.

A lot of parents are shaking their heads at the consideration of a four-day school week, and a longer school day. Shorter school weeks or longer school days are reasonable solutions when there is a shortage of funding, or possible budget cuts coming to the school district. This solution has many mixed opinions from parents, teachers and school board members.

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.

Year-round schooling is characterized by its 45-90 day periods of instruction (varying with different multitrack systems) separated by 15-30 day breaks (varying with different multitrack systems) (California Department of Education). There is no current scientific evidence to show that year-round education lessens the amount of material forgotten during the summer (McMillen 68); in fact, this memory loss is maximized as it occurs more frequently as it accompanies the shorter, habitual breaks. Constant breaks can also multiply some of summer’s negative effects. One common issue associated with summer is students’ loss of focus as summer approaches and trouble becoming accustomed to the beginning of the following school year (Worsnop 439). This would be a, though minimized, a recurring difficulty with constant breaks. Furthermore, teachers

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

Summer breaks enable families to vacation, go to theme parks, and spend days at the beach. As Care.com states "American families have become accustomed to the traditional long summer vacation. Parents may find it difficult to schedule vacations and family reunions." Since there is less time off for kids they are goanna find it hard or more difficult to go anywhere or do anything with their kids. Lynch says, “The most obvious downside of year-round school is the effect it can have on families. Quality family time is important to the emotional and developmental well being of a child”. Schools forget children need to do something with their family’s some times and they need to see cousins and grandparents and if they do year round school schedule parents will find it nearly impossible to schedule any time with other relatives. Kids need to see their grandparents and cousins once in a while with year round schooling that will be a hard task to

courses, summer school, advanced placement, special education, and other programs will be eliminated (Martinez, 2009). Not only do these cuts have an effect on K-12, they also encumber community colleges, state universities, and state colleges. At the college level tuition prices continue to climb, class availability declines, limits on new enrollments, and cutting educators. In January of 2011, Governor Jerry Brown of California proposed his budget cuts and state universities would be taking another cut of $1 billion, leaving alone elementary and secondary schools (Christie, 2011). While politicians stress education is important to improve the quality of one’s life, they also illustrate it is expendable.

“California has cut $18 billion, one-third of state school funding, from money for kindergarten through high school over the past three years.” USA Today (Welch, 2011). Budget cuts to the California Public School System, which is the underlying factor in the deterioration of the quality of education, has had a negative impact on every facet of society. From students to teachers to employers, all have felt the effects of decreased funding of schools. The state of California is headed in the wrong direction by reducing school funding and unless a solution is found to minimize or put a halt to these reductions, our children will bear the

The minute that everybody has been expecting for has at long last arrived. The people are inclining toward the edge of their seats, listening for the last chime to ring to unleash them to freedom. We all love it when summer vacation has arrived, but the time just passes by so fast. A high percentage of the students want there to be a longer summer vacation, but are there really any benefits? Well yes in fact a longer vacation will be associated with many benefits such as increased social life, health benefits, and educational plus financial gains.

In order to meet the equal-opportunity challenge in education this mandate requires funding for all public schools at levels. This is sufficient to provide a rigorous curriculum in a wide range of subject areas, delivered by Highly–Qualified Teachers, with support by excellent school district leaders. This also, requires adequate funding for school districts that provide education for high numbers of students from low-income families, ESL students, including students with special needs (Baker, B. D., Sciarra, D. G., Farrie, D. (2010, p. 1).

How would you like to be in school during summer? Maybe that’s why it’s called year round school. For me personally, I hate year round school just as much as normal school. I hate them because you get less family time and the scheduling is all different.

Every school child looks forward to the lazy days of summer. But, why is the summer break so essential for children? Relaxation, hanging out with friends, and endless amounts of free time are just some reasons that make it an important rite of passage. Summer is an escape from the long school days and the difficulties that arise with classes, homework, teachers, and peers. It also gives children a break and time to recharge. Even though a long summer is nice, after the first month, children seem to get bored, which could mean trouble. Although, there is nothing wrong with having fun, but months without learning is detrimental, which can lead to a significant learning loss. Therefore, an extended school should be implemented to all

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.

In today’s economic environment even the wealthiest states and districts are having to cut funding for education, while districts which were already teetering on the edge are now in an even worse position. In some schools children have to face not having enough books, paper for copies, severe overcrowding,

In addition, insufficient funding of schools along with quality teachers that are retiring are some of the problems we encounter in the education system. In some parts of the United States, there is a lack of adequate access to materials for reading and writing due to budget constraints. In Allen D. Kanner’s article, “Today’s Class Brought to You By…” he mentioned that with the baby boomers retiring, and a high turnover among new teachers, who are asked to teach subjects they are not properly trained for, are causing difficult classroom situations (280). Similarly, Governor Jerry Brown’s statement last January 11 pointed out that K-12 education has ‘borne the brunt’ of the state’s budget cuts with more than $18 billion in cuts over the last three years. This resulted in larger class sizes, programs are cut, and over 30,000 educators laid off. These teachers are very valuable in our society because they provide our youth with the knowledge and social experiences that they will use to better their future and the future of the entire world. As a student, I have suffered the consequences of triple digit fee increases and the lack of available classes offered. The high cost of education has put the burden not only on the students, and many of their parents, but educators, as