Cuts Will Mean Layoffs, Bigger Classes (NC)
December 3, 2010
North Carolina schools hoping for a respite after enduring tough budget years are instead confronted with the possibility that 2011 may turn out to be even harder.
State spending on public schools is heading for a third straight year of cuts, but next year also includes the expiration of federal stimulus dollars that have helped soften the blow. Coupled with a growing student population, educators say there may be no way to keep cuts from affecting the classroom this time around.
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The Office of State Budget and Management asked the Department of Public Instruction to prepare plans for cuts of 5 or 10 percent to its budget. Under either scenario, State Superintendent June Atkinson said, teachers would be laid off, classroom sizes would increase and some schools could close altogether.
"We’re at a point where we can’t make cuts without touching the child in the classroom," she said.
The state spends over $7 billion a year on 115 school districts and 100 charter schools, which accounts for about 65 percent of schools’ operating costs. The rest comes from a mix of local and federal dollars.
Local superintendents around the state are telling school board members to brace for cuts that will shrink faculty sizes and eliminate supplemental programs in some cases.
In Gaston County, for example, Superintendent Reeves McGlohon told the school board that the 10 percent cut could remove 500 positions from the district, including 113 classroom teachers and 250 teaching assistants. There’s no chance of achieving all those reductions by hiring freezes or attrition, incoming board Chairman Mark Upchurch said.
"Since I’ve been on the board, there have been cuts, but not like this," he said. "We’ll still be able to educate our students, but there are a lot of things we won’t be able to offer."
At the same time, North Carolina’s 1.5-million strong public school population is growing: since 2006, roughly 40,000 more students have entered schools.
"When you understand that, on top of cuts, we’ll have no more stimulus money, you can see why we’re so anxious," Atkinson said.
Savings could be found elsewhere, but many school districts have already disposed of the low-hanging fruit, said Leanne Winner, director of governmental relations for the North Carolina School Boards Association.
"Most districts have already had to pare back, so any kind of extra things that might have been out there a few years ago are already gone," she said. "People are looking under every rock they can."
For now, school districts can do little more than speculate on what the cuts will entail. But cuts are a virtual certainty: North Carolina is facing a potential budget gap of $3.2 billion next year, and public schools account for nearly 40 percent of all state spending.
Rep. Linda Johnson, R-Cabarrus, a member of the current House budget subcommittee, said the goal of the incoming Republican majority in both houses of the General Assembly is to leave the heart of public schooling as untouched as possible.
"We did not want to cut anything that’s directly affecting the classrooms," she said.
Johnson and other Republicans plan to have an informal work group meeting Saturday to talk about education, including the budgets for community colleges and four-year universities. They’re hoping solutions can be found so that the picture for schools isn’t as dire as officials fear.
But some pain is inevitable as long as the overall state budget is running in the red, she said.
"We’re going to have to do what everyone is going to have to do, which is live within our means," she said.