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Stocks and consumer spending may be rising, but the economic recession is still ravaging school districts, as budget woes and school closures dominated the news this week.
In Kansas City, Mo., the school board narrowly voted to close nearly half of its schools for budget reasons.
Commenting on the dismal budget situation nationally, NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant told MSNBC that school boards will likely face deeper cuts in the fall and that their funding problems show no sign of abating anytime soon.
“There is no silver lining, at least in the next 18 months,” she said.
Meanwhile, teachers across the nation were incensed at the firings of all 93 teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island — and President Obama’s apparent endorsement of the move.
“I ripped the Obama sticker off my truck,” a Houston Federation of Teachers official said in a New York Times story. The quote was highlighted by Alexander Russo in his This Week in Education blog.
Employment prospects also weren’t looking up for New York’s embattled Gov. David Paterson, who announced recently that he will not seek re-election amid a series of investigations into his administration.
“Hubris is terminal,” Timothy G. Kremer, executive director of the New York State School Boards Association, said in his blog this week, quoting someone who should know: former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. After assessing Paterson’s chances of survival, Kremer turned to a more immediate concern: a state budget that cuts $1.1 billion out of the schools. For more on the possible impact of these cuts, and NYSSBA’s response, go to “Be the Change for Kids.”
Moving to the week’s other big story, a panel assembled by the National Governors Association and Chief State School Officers unveiled proposed national standards in math and English.
Standards are important. But educators also need to provide students with support – especially those students in poverty, said Eric Jenson, author of Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids’ Brains and What Schools Can do About It, on ASCD’s Whole Child Blog.
Back to money woes, be sure to read “Get Schooled, “ the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s blog, about state house efforts to raise a 7 percent hotel and motel tax to help pay for a new Falcons’ football stadium. Meanwhile, the Fulton County schools may lay off 480 teachers, and Gwinnett County could face a loss of at least $62 million in state funds.
At least somebody has his priorities straight: or, as Get Schooled put it: “Maybe kids can go to Falcons games when schools are forced to close.”
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor
