Why school stakeholders should worry about the ‘funding cliff’


Districts that have managed to avoid painful cuts no longer might have a choice.

More than 80 percent of schools anticipate budget cuts in the upcoming school year, and administrators are scrambling to maintain school operations in the face of diminishing funds, warns a grim report by the Center on Education Policy (CEP).

That could hinder education reform efforts that are needed to keep the country competitive in the global economy, the center warns.

The report, “Strained Schools Face Bleak Future: Districts Foresee Budget Cuts, Teacher Layoffs, and a Slowing of Education Reform Efforts,” states that until recently, school districts were able to soften the blow to school budget cuts using money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and the Education Jobs law. However, as those funds near depletion, school districts are planning to tighten their belts even more for the 2011-12 school year.

For help in getting through school budget cuts, see:

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Based on a survey of 457 school districts, the report states that 84 percent of respondents anticipate school budget cuts in 2011-12, up from 70 percent in 2010-11. Schools received about $80 billion from ARRA between 2009 and 2010 and $10 billion through the Education Jobs measure, both of which were designed to preserve or create jobs in the education sector. Less than one-third of the nation’s school districts expect to have any ARRA funds available for use during 2011-12.

“It looks rather bleak,” said Jack Jennings, CEO and president of the CEP. “For the majority of school districts in the country, this will be the third year in a row that they’ve had lower budgets than they’re had the previous year. So for three years in a row it has been a downward spiral for school districts.”

Sixty-one percent of districts that anticipate school budget cuts have plans to cut staff in 2011-12. While this number seems small compared to the 85 percent of districts that cut jobs last year, the percentage is expected to increase, because at the time of the survey many districts had not yet decided where to cut.

“What school districts have done [previously] is eliminate things that do not involve personnel,” Jennings said.  “They’ll eliminate the purchase of textbooks, they’ll defer maintenance on buildings … but because they’ve had such a long period with fewer and fewer dollars, now they are letting go of teachers, including teachers of [core] academic subjects.”

These school budget cuts also are affecting education reform efforts, with more than half of districts planning to slow progress or indefinitely postpone education reform initiatives, while two thirds of districts already have done so. These reductions in reforms have implications for the United States’ future economic competitiveness within the global economy, according to the CEP’s report. The center warns that cuts here are likely to stall the actions necessary to boost the country’s economic future.

“What this means is that class sizes will increase, so that teachers will be teaching 20 students instead of 15 students. It means that teacher’s aides, counselors, and special reading instructors will no longer be present. There will be far fewer people that can help teachers do better,” Jennings said.

For help in getting through school budget cuts, see:

Technologies That Stretch Your Ed-tech Dollar

ASBO conference helps schools save money

Seven proven ways to save on school budgets

Saving school budgets in a recession

While budget cuts are affecting districts in every sector—urban, suburban, town, and rural—a greater portion of suburban districts plan to cut staff to compensate for the decrease. In the past school year, teachers have been cut in about half of the country’s school districts, while many other programs, such as staff professional development, purchases of instructional materials, facilities maintenance, and student services, also have been severely cut back or eliminated altogether.

“We like to issue reports that show progress in American education … but unfortunately school people are telling us through these surveys that they’re facing difficulties in providing education, and I think they want the public to understand that,” said Jennings. He added that the survey received a larger and faster response than was anticipated.

“What this says to me is that school people want the public to understand they’re doing the best they can, but they’re in financial straitjackets,” he said.

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