reckless
Your top 3 news stories today
Hilliard schools have a 6.9-mill property tax levy on the May 3rd ballot. According to the Superintendent, Dale McVey
Because of the Governors reckless budget, Hilliard City Schools may lose $5.2 million in Fiscal Year (FY) '12 (2011-12 school year) and $8.9 million in FY '13 (2012-13 school year). This would represent a 15.4 percent decrease in state foundation money for FY '12 and 26 percent in FY '13 according to the Superintendent.
If you live in the district, or want to help, visit www.forhilliardschools.org.
www.hilliardschools.org also has some information for you.
Despite analysis and news reports to the contrary, the administrations education Czar continues to state that school districts can and should meet their massive budget shortfalls without local tax increases.
A report from the political think tank Innovation Ohio said the cuts to schools would result in the layoff of 30,000 teachers and support staff. Mr. Sommers said the administration's message has been to not start cuts with teachers and principals.
"I think any school that starts by cutting teachers is short sighted," he said.
Schools should instead make reductions in non-instructional costs such as administration, food service, transportation, human resources, etc., he said.
Clearly as much as the focus has been on teachers, this reckless budget also impacts education support professionals too. Indeed, if you take Mr. Sommers at his own word, ESP's would be first on the chopping block.
On top of the errosion of these middle class jobs, a lot of parents are going to struggle to find ways to safely get their kids to and from school because they have inflexible work schedules.
The services ESP's provide to both parents and teachers, often unrecognized, will come into stark relief if no serious adjustments are made to this reckless budget.
While lawmakers begin to debate the administrations reckless budget proposal, it's plain for all to see that a more balanced approach is required to preserve our future, our schools and local economies. This is evident in a number of reports today
Devastating news from Cleveland
Columbus city also finds itself in trouble
She said it means that staff cuts are inevitable before the start of school this fall.
"We understand, to really be financially able to get what we need, it's going to take a combination of the district making significant cuts and asking the community to support the schools through new money," Backus said.
The eliminated positions will save the district $2.9 million in salaries and benefits but leave about 34 people out of work, according to Assistant Superintendent Phil Herman.
These cuts should be a wake up call to lawmakers, to consider a more balanced, less reckless approach to the budget.
When we talk about the reckless budget proposal and its impact on public education it can be hard to visualize what billions, or even millions of dollars of cuts really mean. We republished documents Innovation Ohio obtained from the administration that show what the funding levels would likely be for individual school districts, but this doesn't truly capture the full scale of the problem.
As we collate our clips each morning here at JTF, we are starting to notice a distrubing but very regular pattern. Newspaper article after article detailing school funding problems. We want to start bringing these to your attention as a means to highlight just how drastic and reckless this budget is for public education, the students and our communities.
Please send us links to articles in your local paper that discuss school funding issues. You can send them to admin@jointhefuture.org.