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The governor's budget addressed the anticipated $180 million shortfall by reducing funding to local governments and higher education, delaying the phase out of the corporate franchise tax, initiating a state hiring freeze, and making cuts to specific social services. While this budget plan doesn't cut funding for K-12 education, it does prevent public schools from collecting about $165 million in money that had been previously allocated for them.
The bill that will be on the senate floor tomorrow provides for a $300 million budget cut by reducing state spending by 3.4% across the board. If enacted, this plan would strip Kansas schools of about $110 million for this fiscal year. And since since the cut is "across the board", it would not only affect the "base" amount given to schools, but would also affect special education and at-risk funding, along with programs that are important for smaller, poorer districts that serve greater numbers of "at risk" students. The result of this is that these cuts would have a much greater impact on smaller districts than on the larger, wealthier districts that make up the suburbs of Kansas City and Wichita.
Our district would loose over $250,000 under the republican plan. This would be financially devastating for our schools. You can use this link from KNEA to look up and contact your legislators and let them know that you agree there are better ways to balance the budget then to cripple public schools.
This totally sucks because if were losing $250,000 then we have to cut that much out of the budget which most likley meens that fine arts corses will go down the drain along with labs in classes and things like that.
ReplyDeleteAccording to an official statement by the school district, there are no specific cuts to people or programs being discussed at this time. Check out the "rumor watch" section of the district website [www.eudoraschools.org] for more on this. The economy sucks...there's just no way around it. Everyone is going to be forced to make tough decisions in the coming weeks and months.
ReplyDeleteHowever, to try to speculate about what will be cut and when at this point is simply that...speculation. The district has made individual education a priority, and elective classes, the arts, athletics and extracurricular activities, and other programs all fit into this idea that students should be able to personalize their school experience.
So while I definitely am not in a position to say what will or won't be cut, I think it's extremely important that we don't panic and jump to conclusions.