As if we didn’t think school budget cuts were bad enough. Now, educators are bracing for a deeper cuts that could mean tougher times for both teachers and students lie ahead.
Experts say that even if there is economic growth by next year, it won’t be until 2013 that we could possibly see educational budget levels return to how it was pre-recession.
School busses have been cut, art and music programs have been cut, and classrooms are practically doubling in size to make up for the lost in tax revenue that public schools receive throughout the nation.
Principal Josh Keene of Abraham Lincoln Middle School in Lancaster, PA, where many children live in poverty, says:
“I’m scared to death. As we continue to look at fewer and fewer non-classroom positions that are there, at some point it’s going to impact core classroom positions and that’s a very, very scary thing.”
It’s not fair to the educators and most importantly, it’s not fair to the children. Keene adds:
“You know the old adage sometimes you need to work smarter, not harder? We’re frankly at a point where we just need to work harder and more hours, and with the reductions in staff, that’s what needs to happen because otherwise, kids are going to suffer, and that’s unacceptable.”
Unacceptable, indeed. Children deserve to be able to go to school where they can have a full life. It just doesn’t seem fair that schools are one of the first targets when it comes to budget cuts.
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