Has your child's school began to cut back by adding more students per class and cutting teachers? The budget cuts here in California is hurting the school system. LA Unified School District is already terrible yet they take money away.
I've actually seen an increase in the class size. Also, some teachers have been laid off. They are expecting more lay offs and budget cuts to come in the very near future. Why must they always cut education first? Doesn't make any sense. We should be able to make budget cuts of our own and cut them out of office.
Talks here are of cutting on sports. Which stinks because we don't have that many sports to begin with. One sport a season for each gender (fall has 8man football and cheer, winter has basketball, spring has track. Plus cheerleading, which is a three season sport: football, basketball, and state cheer competition in April).
The state (New Mexico) is calling for all schools to cut 10% of their budget. Not even doing away with sports and other extra curricular activities will do that. But my district can't cut teachers, we only have one per grade anyway in elementary, and one per subject in mid/high. Combine grades? I guess that could be a possibility. If K and 1st were to be combined, that would make 23 kids in that classroom. We were hoping for some new playground equipment for the 4th-7th graders. Since theirs burned in a grassfire 4 years ago and melted away (the same fire that burned 3/4 of my ranch and almost got my house. It came to the back door of the school gym). Guess that won't happen now. Was also hoping for lights on the football field so we can have games on Friday nights. But they will always be Saturday afternoons I suppose.
I just mailed out letters this morning on this very subject (I subbed today at the school in the office for the secretary). But right now we have no solutions. Surely something else could be cut. Does every highway HAVE to be repaved all the time? Do medians have to be landscaped right now? Cutting sports isn't a good idea, this is giving the kids something to do without getting into trouble. Of course, cutting the classroom is even worse than sports. I just don't see what to cut. Unless you say cut all this bullcrap testing we are forced to do and let the teachers teach the subject rather than teach how to test.
The school district that we live in is not only in a crunch because of No Child Left Behind and a bad economy, but is in a financial meltdown due to gross irresponsibility with the budget for years, which the chief of the school district and the CFO managed to hide until last year. This year the budget cuts were hideous. Gone are
Field trips
Outdoor School
Fourth and fifth grade band and orchestra
Middle school pool
Substitute teachers and overtime pay
ALL the P.E. Teachers, Music Teachers, and School Librarians
And, of course, teaching positions.
They've restructured the student teacher ratios to 30 students per teacher in K through 2nd grade and 35 students per teacher in 3rd through 5th. Which didn't stop them from putting 39 students in DD8's 3rd grade class this year. It's now down to a more reasonable 26 students, but for the first three weeks it was crazy.
All this is mainly due to the district administration's over estimating the income and underestimating the expenses year after year as well as some other unsavory shenanigans. But it's immoral that the teachers and students are the ones to pay for it. AND the superintendent was given a $200,000 severance package when they fired him. That's enough to pay for the salary of four teachers. Grrrrr.
In addition, DD8 and DS6's school has been sanctioned by No Child Left Behind, which is going to cost them piles of money. Instead of lifting up and supporting schools that don't meet their minimum requirements, NCLB straps them with weird requirements like being forced to pay private firms to come in and tutor any child whose parent requests it, instead of using that money to invest in the school's infrastructure and repair from within.
Oregon, Washington, Tennesse, Colorado, and Massachusetts all have state affiliates.
Our schools, generally, have been falling behind for years, and this current bad economy is making it worse. I'm not a huge fan of the whole charter school system, but I'm actually going to be looking into it for next year. My kids need music, P.E., field trips, small class sizes, and their neighborhood school just can't provide that, anymore.
My mom is a 3rd grade teacher in Virginia and her class size grew by 1/3 this year. They luckily haven't laid anyone off, but they are not hiring and just giving more and more kids.
No, our three lunch ladies (so sweet mexican gals!) fix alot of our food from scratch. Homemade rolls, carrot cake, enchiladas. We had frito chili pie the other day that was yummy! But I LOVE pizza day! Same pizza we sell in the concession stand at ball games! We have a free breakfast program at our school. If they are going to start cutting things out, maybe it should be breakfast. I mean, parents CAN fix that at home. I usually send my kids to school fed, but since the breakfast program is mandatory, they always go thru the breakfast line, too. Take out the breakfast, the state can save that money.
Anhata, I agree that NCLB is a total waste of money and resources. We are teaching our kids to take the test, not the material. I've looked at the tests, and some of the stuff is total bull. AYP is a problem that our school has. It's not that our kids aren't smart. We have nearly 100% graduation rate. I can't think of any kid in the last 9 years (since my oldest started school here) that didn't graduate. Even the ones that get knocked up managed to keep up with their schoolwork and get their diploma. But with subgroups on AYP, and as small as our school is, a family from Mexico that 1) doesn't even KNOW english and 2) kids were already way behind in their school down there, if they even went to school at all, will move into our district, take the NCLB test, and fail. And one or two large families will totally decimate our chances of making AYP.
I could go on and on. This is a touchy subject with me since I'm very involved in our school (I coach, I sub, my husband is on the school board, and my MIL was on it before he was). If we would just let the teachers do their job things would go so much smoother. and I can't understand huge admin. costs. I realize my district is really small, but we manage with a superintendent (whose only secretary is the one for the whole school), 2 principals, and 5 board members. No frills, they just get the job done.
Comments
I've actually seen an
I've actually seen an increase in the class size. Also, some teachers have been laid off. They are expecting more lay offs and budget cuts to come in the very near future. Why must they always cut education first? Doesn't make any sense. We should be able to make budget cuts of our own and cut them out of office.
Talks here are of cutting on
Talks here are of cutting on sports. Which stinks because we don't have that many sports to begin with. One sport a season for each gender (fall has 8man football and cheer, winter has basketball, spring has track. Plus cheerleading, which is a three season sport: football, basketball, and state cheer competition in April).
The state (New Mexico) is calling for all schools to cut 10% of their budget. Not even doing away with sports and other extra curricular activities will do that. But my district can't cut teachers, we only have one per grade anyway in elementary, and one per subject in mid/high. Combine grades? I guess that could be a possibility. If K and 1st were to be combined, that would make 23 kids in that classroom. We were hoping for some new playground equipment for the 4th-7th graders. Since theirs burned in a grassfire 4 years ago and melted away (the same fire that burned 3/4 of my ranch and almost got my house. It came to the back door of the school gym). Guess that won't happen now. Was also hoping for lights on the football field so we can have games on Friday nights. But they will always be Saturday afternoons I suppose.
I just mailed out letters this morning on this very subject (I subbed today at the school in the office for the secretary). But right now we have no solutions. Surely something else could be cut. Does every highway HAVE to be repaved all the time? Do medians have to be landscaped right now? Cutting sports isn't a good idea, this is giving the kids something to do without getting into trouble. Of course, cutting the classroom is even worse than sports. I just don't see what to cut. Unless you say cut all this bullcrap testing we are forced to do and let the teachers teach the subject rather than teach how to test.
Did a Mission Moment on this last Sunday
The school district that we live in is not only in a crunch because of No Child Left Behind and a bad economy, but is in a financial meltdown due to gross irresponsibility with the budget for years, which the chief of the school district and the CFO managed to hide until last year. This year the budget cuts were hideous. Gone are
Field trips
Outdoor School
Fourth and fifth grade band and orchestra
Middle school pool
Substitute teachers and overtime pay
ALL the P.E. Teachers, Music Teachers, and School Librarians
And, of course, teaching positions.
They've restructured the student teacher ratios to 30 students per teacher in K through 2nd grade and 35 students per teacher in 3rd through 5th. Which didn't stop them from putting 39 students in DD8's 3rd grade class this year. It's now down to a more reasonable 26 students, but for the first three weeks it was crazy.
All this is mainly due to the district administration's over estimating the income and underestimating the expenses year after year as well as some other unsavory shenanigans. But it's immoral that the teachers and students are the ones to pay for it. AND the superintendent was given a $200,000 severance package when they fired him. That's enough to pay for the salary of four teachers. Grrrrr.
In addition, DD8 and DS6's school has been sanctioned by No Child Left Behind, which is going to cost them piles of money. Instead of lifting up and supporting schools that don't meet their minimum requirements, NCLB straps them with weird requirements like being forced to pay private firms to come in and tutor any child whose parent requests it, instead of using that money to invest in the school's infrastructure and repair from within.
One thing that we can do is advocate for our kids with organizations like which "exists because children in communities across America do not have the power to influence our democratic system to meet their fundamental needs. Stand for Children seeks to make children and their needs a higher political priority."
Oregon, Washington, Tennesse, Colorado, and Massachusetts all have state affiliates.
Our schools, generally, have been falling behind for years, and this current bad economy is making it worse. I'm not a huge fan of the whole charter school system, but I'm actually going to be looking into it for next year. My kids need music, P.E., field trips, small class sizes, and their neighborhood school just can't provide that, anymore.
My mom is a 3rd grade teacher
My mom is a 3rd grade teacher in Virginia and her class size grew by 1/3 this year. They luckily haven't laid anyone off, but they are not hiring and just giving more and more kids.
What about the lunch
What about the lunch programs? Has anyone seen a decrease in food quality?
No, our three lunch ladies
No, our three lunch ladies (so sweet mexican gals!) fix alot of our food from scratch. Homemade rolls, carrot cake, enchiladas. We had frito chili pie the other day that was yummy! But I LOVE pizza day! Same pizza we sell in the concession stand at ball games! We have a free breakfast program at our school. If they are going to start cutting things out, maybe it should be breakfast. I mean, parents CAN fix that at home. I usually send my kids to school fed, but since the breakfast program is mandatory, they always go thru the breakfast line, too. Take out the breakfast, the state can save that money.
Anhata, I agree that NCLB is a total waste of money and resources. We are teaching our kids to take the test, not the material. I've looked at the tests, and some of the stuff is total bull. AYP is a problem that our school has. It's not that our kids aren't smart. We have nearly 100% graduation rate. I can't think of any kid in the last 9 years (since my oldest started school here) that didn't graduate. Even the ones that get knocked up managed to keep up with their schoolwork and get their diploma. But with subgroups on AYP, and as small as our school is, a family from Mexico that 1) doesn't even KNOW english and 2) kids were already way behind in their school down there, if they even went to school at all, will move into our district, take the NCLB test, and fail. And one or two large families will totally decimate our chances of making AYP.
I could go on and on. This is a touchy subject with me since I'm very involved in our school (I coach, I sub, my husband is on the school board, and my MIL was on it before he was). If we would just let the teachers do their job things would go so much smoother. and I can't understand huge admin. costs. I realize my district is really small, but we manage with a superintendent (whose only secretary is the one for the whole school), 2 principals, and 5 board members. No frills, they just get the job done.
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