Budget pressures still have a tight grip on most of the states and are already leaving governors and lawmakers little choice but to cut as they prepare, debate, and settle on new funding for public schools.
About half the states are poised to slash spending on K-12 education in fiscal 2011, while another handful are expected to keep funding level for public schools, said Daniel G. Thatcher, a fiscal and education policy associate at the Denver-based .
Only a small number of states鈥擬assachusetts and Pennsylvania among them鈥攁re proposing any kinds of increases, and those are modest, he said.
It may be several more years before many states begin to see their revenues recover from the recession that officially began in December 2007, and that grim fiscal reality could result in widespread teacher layoffs and spikes in class sizes in school districts across the country, Mr. Thatcher said.
And in the coming budget year, as federal economic-stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act begins to recede, budget gaps in many states could grow even wider. For fiscal 2011, the estimates for 35 states put their collective budget gap at $55 billion, according to the NCSL.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said late last month that he is 鈥渧ery concerned鈥� about such fallout.
鈥淚 worry, literally, about hundreds of thousands of jobs this fall,鈥� Mr. Duncan said during a meeting with some of the nation鈥檚 governors in Washington.
鈥楥lassroom Experience鈥�
In Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican who took office in January, has proposed deep cuts to K-12 funding as part of his plan to close a roughly $2.2 billion shortfall in the upcoming two-year budget. His proposal, which has sparked widespread protest from education advocates across the state, would carve $731 million out of the $11.4 billion public schools鈥� budget over the next two years.
Gerard Robinson, Mr. McDonnell鈥檚 appointed education secretary, wrote a letter to educators around Virginia to justify the governor鈥檚 proposed K-12 reductions. Public schools, he wrote, bore little or none of the brunt of spending cuts in recent years, while other government services had been cut significantly.
鈥淕overnor McDonnell came to the conclusion that in order to fairly distribute necessary spending reductions, K-12 would have to participate to a larger extent than in previous years,鈥� Mr. Robinson wrote. 鈥淏ased on prior increases in spending over the past decade, we are confident that these reductions can be absorbed while the classroom experience for our young people remains at the highest level.鈥�
The Virginia Education Association, however, strongly disputes any suggestion that the decreases, if adopted, would spare the classroom. The 60,000-member affiliate of the estimates that as many as 28,000 school-based jobs would be shed. Budget-writing committees in Virginia鈥檚 House of Delegates and Senate late last month adopted smaller cuts to K-12 education than those pitched by the governor, but the two houses must resolve their competing budget plans by the middle of this month.
In a written response to Secretary Robinson, VEA President Kitty Boitnott contends that while K-12 spending was lowered in the last budget cycle, federal stimulus dollars backfilled most of those reductions.
鈥淏ut that money is gone and the cuts now remain,鈥� she wrote.
Some states, such as Alabama, held off on spending all their stimulus money in fiscal 2009 and 2010, as a way to avoid the so-called 鈥渇unding cliff鈥� when the aid ends and to help soften the blow in fiscal 2011 and beyond.
鈥淲hat we decided to do was prorate our education budget so that we would have some of that money to put into our 2011 budget,鈥� Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican, said in an interview.
Still, Gov. Riley said, his state will probably have to continue to make K-12 spending reductions, especially if no more federal stimulus dollars materialize.
鈥淲e鈥檒l have to look at things like rotating our school buses every 12 or 13 years, instead of every 10 years,鈥� he said.
New Jersey Impact
In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie鈥擵irginia Gov. McDonnell鈥檚 fellow Republican newcomer鈥攈as also roiled the K-12 community with a recent executive order to halt $475 million in aid to schools. The move will force school districts to tap their surplus and rainy-day funds to make up the shortfall. The governor must close a $2.2 billion gap in the state鈥檚 roughly $29 billion current budget.
Like Mr. McDonnell, Gov. Christie maintained that the cuts would not harm schools this year, but education groups said the fallout would hit districts hard in fiscal 2011, especially if speculation that the governor鈥檚 new budget would seek further reductions in school spending proves true. Gov. Christie is slated to release his fiscal 2011 budget plan on March 15.
鈥淣ext year, our schools will be starting from a deficit position because of the executive order,鈥� said Steven Baker, a spokesman for the 203,000-member New Jersey Education Association, an NEA affiliate. 鈥淎nd we have no idea yet how much of a cut we might be facing when the governor releases his new budget.鈥�
Mr. Baker said districts are being told to prepare for a 15 percent reduction in K-12 spending in fiscal2011, a scenario that would be a 鈥渄ouble whammy.鈥� In the Cherry Hill district, for example, officials are preparing for teacher layoffs that could number nearly 200 out of a teaching corps of 1,200, he said.
California Pain Continues
In California鈥攚here public schools have collectively lost $17 billion in state aid over the past two years鈥攄istrict leaders, community organizations, and education advocacy groups are mounting a fight against what they warn would be another $3 billion blow to K-12 funding in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger鈥檚 budget plan for 2011.
The governor, a Republican who will leave office early next year because of term limits, proposed an $83 billion spending plan that he said spares public schools from further spending cuts by meeting the state鈥檚 Proposition 98 school funding guarantee.
But education officials said that would be the case only if the governor carried out a proposed change in the state revenue structure that would effectively lower the bar for its obligation to schools and community colleges.
To fight back, two different groups鈥攊n strongly worded letters to Secretary Duncan鈥攁re asking federal education officials to scrutinize the governor鈥檚 proposed K-12 spending as they review California鈥檚 application for its final share of the stimulus program鈥檚 State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.
The groups assert that the governor鈥檚 budget writers are using accounting maneuvers that give the appearance that California will meet the so-called 鈥渕aintenance of effort鈥� provision of the federal economic-stimulus law. That provision requires states to preserve K-12 funding at no less than 2006 levels. Maintaining that minimum funding is a condition for states to receive money from the stabilization fund.
The letter delves into technical accounting issues, but basically asks Mr. Duncan to enforce the maintenance-of-effort rules so that the K-12 cuts would not be so severe next year.
鈥淲e greatly appreciate the federal government鈥檚 investment in schools,鈥� the letter says. 鈥淚n this time of brutal state cuts to education, federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds have served as a lifesaver for California students and schools. We also understand the federal government must be sensitive to the financial problems faced by states.
鈥淗owever, the maintenance-of-effort assurance that California recently submitted to your office,鈥� the letter continues, 鈥渟eems to seek federal cooperation to cut schools disproportionately and with impunity.鈥�
