Newly released figures today show that the Wake County school system would lose hundreds of teachers and potentially the vast majority of its teacher assistants to help make up for possible state budget cuts.
The state Department of Public Instruction was asked by Gov. Bev Perdue to draw up how it would cut funding by 5 and 10 percent to help close a $3.5 billion revenue shortfall next year. A 5 percent to Wake, or $51.6 million, would cost the state's largest school system 429 classroom teachers and 73 instructional support positions
The impact would be especially hard on teacher assistants, with Wake losing $20 million, or 37 percent of the state funding it now receives. In that scenario, the state would only fund teacher assistants for kindergarten, first grade and half of the second-grade classes.
A 5 percent cut would also mean the loss of 252 months of employment for Wake's assistant principals and 315 months for career and technical education teachers it would mean the loss of 315 months. Based on an average of of 10 months of employment per position, that would be equal to 25.2 assistant principals and 31.5 career and technical education teachers.
The impact would be even more severe under a 10 percent cut, which would cost Wake $78.4 million.
A 10 percent state funding cut would cost Wake 523 classroom teachers and 82 instructional support positions.
It would also mean losing $39.4 million for Wake teacher assistants, or 73.5 percent of the current state funding. The state would only fund teacher assistants for kindergarten in this proposal.
It would also mean the loss of 376 months of employment for Wake assistant principals and 472 months for career and technical education teachers. That could be the equivalent of 37.6 assistant principals and 47.2 career and technical education teachers.
Five percent of the state's K-12 budget is $396 million. But because a cut of $304 million is already built into the public education budget, schools would have to come up with a $701 million cut. A 10 percent cut is worth $701 million, or $1.1 billion when the recurring cut is added.
A 5 percent cut would mean the loss of 4,340.5 classroom teachers and 6,786 teacher assistants across the state. A 10 percent cut would mean the loss of 5,313 teachers and 13,259 teacher assistants.
Under both state scenarios, class sizes would increase by an average of as much as three more students in some grade levels to deal with having fewer teachers.
It's uncertain just how much education funding will be cut by the General Assembly when it convenes next year. Perdue had asked other state agencies to look at deeper cuts of up to 15 percent.
Comments
This entire fiasco is from
Tue, 11/23/2010 - 07:33 — willynillyThis entire fiasco is from short-sighted politicians lining their own pockets via "initiatives" such as NCWISE and NBPTS. The total for both of those is well into billions of dollars. There are also the lawsuits in the background that have been under the veil of secrecy. You cannot creat IEPs for a special needs student that includes "not making anything less than a C" and expect that IEP not to produce a windfall of money for a parent. (Yes, I had an IEP just like that. Still do!) And the schools (administrators) sign off on this. The disablities act was designed to level the playing field, NOT tilt it in favor of of a student.
It's time to pull back the cloth from the mess in the WCPSS. DanofNC was nice enough to look at the evidence I had and was rather "interested" in what he saw. My offer still stands on these blogs.
NCWISE and NBPTS?
Fri, 11/26/2010 - 14:32 — stan_norwalkI can't intelligently debate the merits of NCWISE and NBPTS. However, I can't believe they are more than a minor factor in the current budget shortfalls. Whatever they cost is history and we are dealing with a current problem.
See the film The Inside Job for the root causes at the federal level. In sum, lack of regulation of the banks and investment companies, e.g. Lehman and Goldman Sachs + greed resulted in trillions of dollars in bad mortgages. When the expected foreclosures occurred, unemployment soared, the banks stopped financing business expansion and new homes, consumer confidence tumbled, people stopped buying cars and other stuff....and sales tax revenues declined, and, here, property tax revenues stopped growing. Those last two revenue sources fund schools/education.
At the state level, legislators had known for years that our system of tax revenues needed modernization. Tax revenues were not growing as fast as the economy due to the shift from an agricultual and manafacturing economy to a service economy. Due to the strength of lobbies, among them the real estate and development lobby, legislators debated for five years without coming to an agreement. Ditto for managing growth and requiring that newcomers pick up part of the bill for the schools and other infrastructure they require. Since existing taxes were insufficient to pay for schools, roads etc., the money for new infrastructure came from services, e.g. teachers, teacher salaries, human services, etc. Initiatives such as impact fees, transfer taxes and APFO's were crushed by special interests.
At the county level, growth has been the cotemporary classmmanding value. Low tax rates and resistance to growth management fees have been the result. The County has fallen behind the curve of school construction (25,000 seats in temporary classrooms) which in turn keeps down the contibution to education.
And the mass culture and value system regarding education has changed. (Many on this blog are not typical).
I come from a family of immigrants. Education was the key to the good life. Teachers and school officials were never challenged. But with increasing affluence, education has been more and more, taken for granted. People in middle class areas, e.g. Western Wake, have become accustomed to low property taxes (on a statewide or national basis) as the norm. Especiall in these hard times, paying more for education and schools is not supported.
Many are to blame for the mess K-12 is in. Digging our way out will be a long arduous process.
NCWISE and NBPTS (in
Sat, 11/27/2010 - 10:22 — willynillyNCWISE and NBPTS (in repsectful disagreement) are much more than minor for 2 reasosns:
1) The costs associated with both of these are continuing. The total costs are well over 1 billion and growing. A more accurate analysis may prove to be in the multiples of billions.
2) The advent of NCWISE and NBPTS is the mindset of NC. "Hey, let's try this and let's do that." Unfortunately many of these items cost much more than first planned.
It does not take a great deal of work to see where NBPTS falls short. Just spend an hour or so researching studies online. However, it does give teachers a chance to earn a bit more money. In these days of frozen pay and frozen steps that is a good thing.
The affluence of which you speak is not necessarily the problem. It is the less fortunate and uneducated that causes the majority of the problem. Students who are in school who do not want to be there (and no way to deal with them) is another. Students who display dangerous behaviors are rarely dealt with.
Lastly, the powers that be consistently refuse to look at these problems. If a teacher (and many who post here including me) says anything that does not fall in line with the rank and file they will be summarily harrassed until they comply or leave the system.
Principals still latch on the latests and greatest (like ABCI 'pronounced ABC eye') which have no proof (like NBPTS) of imporving student achievement. In short, ABCI says that "giving" a child a 62 for anything they do or don't do as a minimum grade will improve performance. Well, it does inflate scores, but the state testing shows otherwise as to effectiveness. In this case these same principals are the ones that say that testing (EOGs) is unfair and useless. But of course it is.....it would deny the people that forward this inane ideas the ability to suck tax money from the pockets of taxpayers.
Until we have good stewards of these tax dollars the very last thing we should ever do is give them more tax money.
As you know, you can't make
Sat, 11/27/2010 - 19:23 — HJ2ss2As you know, you can't make people care and people do not care about the less fortunate and uneducated. Until they can see a direct connection regarding how this affects them there will be no reason for them to care. They will continue to complain about this group and demand something be done yet do nothing about it. If you say you have a successful method for educating these children, it may be acknowledged but certainly not supported. If you could come up with a method to insure a perfect score on the SAT you would have the full support of the parents and school system. (Of course we are talking Wake County.....they are likely to force you out then claim your method as their idea).
Maybe Wake County Should
Tue, 11/23/2010 - 12:13 — RMC10Just close the Wake borders to newcomers until the government here (State, County,Local) can get a handle on this whole mess. What are other states doing basically everyone is bailing water out of their same boats - the "budget" has been a problem every year since 2002 when we moved in. Every year there is "sky is falling" gloom and doom. NC has had 2-3 influxes of money (unexpected) this year. Everyone should have known the stimulus money would not be repeated, race to the top, everyone knew it was doled out over 4 years. The projected revenues and taxes from everyone moving it would slow (which it did after the peak before the valley). All the indicators were there. How awful it must be for teachers to stay positive, focused, and excited about teaching everyday, when they, like all the children, are just little pawns to be "x" off/on a budget list. Maybe these grave announcements and press releases could be "saved" until at least after the 1st of the year. Make Bev and DPI give back the lottery money to education. Charge people moving in from other states a "services" fee. Heck charge tuition for school, charge for bus service when appropriate. Rent textbooks to be reused for a year or two. Stop serving lunches altogether (brown bag) - gets rid of F&R labels. Lastly, go back and review the "projected growth" vs. reality growth over past 2 years and get stats that are real time not from 5 years ago projected enrollments.
Why only teachers and APs?
Mon, 11/22/2010 - 15:51 — openmindWhy is it that the cuts are only being projected for people within the buildings? Why not start to take a long look at the higher ups as well. If you cut one person making over $100,000 you have just saved at least two teachers.
I can't wait to see what happens next year when there are upwards of 40 kids in some classrooms and a deficit of assistant principals to help with the discipline. The state just won money for the Race to the Top and the way were are currently looking a things we are in a rush to get back to the bottom. Cutting classroom teachers in no way is going to help the state of NC begin to clumb the mountain ahead to improve in overall education within the state. Perhaps it is time to consider raising taxes. I know that nobody likes to hear it, but when it is being done for the greater good of our children and the students (not just to save some jobs) within the classroom, maybe it is something to consider. I am sure those without kids in the schools will jump down my throat for that comment but so be it. It is time to take a long hard look at things and do what is needed. 500 plus teaching jobs, 35-40 kids in a classroom, that may not be good.
Budget cuts
Mon, 11/22/2010 - 23:14 — stan_norwalkSuggest you go to the NC DPI web site and follow it to new press releases, then to the release for Nov. 22nd There you will find the States cut outlook in more detail and a statement by June Atkinson on the harm these potential cuts will have on education.
Money
Mon, 11/22/2010 - 17:08 — HereWeGoIf you cut one person making over $100,000 you have just saved at least two teachers.
I can't wait to see what they pay the new superintendent as they have already spent one year's worth of teacher's salary on the search alone.
DPI says that if you
Mon, 11/22/2010 - 16:14 — KeungHui (author)DPI says that if you eliminate state funding for every local central office administrator in the state, that would save $107 million. That obviously won't come close to filling the budget hole, even in the 5 percent scenario.
Why only teachers and APs?
Mon, 11/22/2010 - 15:51 — openmindWhy is it that the cuts are only being projected for people within the buildings? Why not start to take a long look at the higher ups as well. If you cut one person making over $100,000 you have just saved at least two teachers.
I can't wait to see what happens next year when there are upwards of 40 kids in some classrooms and a deficit of assistant principals to help with the discipline. The state just won money for the Race to the Top and the way were are currently looking a things we are in a rush to get back to the bottom. Cutting classroom teachers in no way is going to help the state of NC begin to clumb the mountain ahead to improve in overall education within the state. Perhaps it is time to consider raising taxes. I know that nobody likes to hear it, but when it is being done for the greater good of our children and the students (not just to save some jobs) within the classroom, maybe it is something to consider. I am sure those without kids in the schools will jump down my throat for that comment but so be it. It is time to take a long hard look at things and do what is needed. 500 plus teaching jobs, 35-40 kids in a classroom, that may not be good.
I no longer have children in
Tue, 11/23/2010 - 10:31 — HJ2ss2I no longer have children in the system but understand your suggestion. The problem is larger than just a lack of funding. Give them money and they will not spend it wisely. They will continue detrimental programs like peer mediation and anger management as well as expenditures on staff training like Ruby Payne. (ie. anger management...If you ever meet with a group of students for that purpose and ask them how many "anger management" groups they have been in, by high school, they may have been in at least five of them).
Well...
Tue, 11/23/2010 - 12:25 — Bob_SconceFirst of all, no government spend money "wisely," partially because the wisdom of certain spending is very subjective. That's too high of a standard. If we only funded government that spent all of its money "wisely," we'd have no government at all -- no police, no military, no courts, nothing.
So, we fund government, full knowing that part of what we give it will be wasted. But, we try to minimize the amount of waste by electing people who we believe will do a good job of minimizing that waste (i.e. have the same spending priorities we do).
Even though I disagreed with a lot of the old board's spending policies, I still supported giving them more money because the good that resulted from the money they spent appropriately more than offset the harm from what they wasted. I voted for the last bond, even though I was disappointed with the portion that was going to unnecessary renovations. Similarly, I'm going to lobby my Commissioners to give the district more money, even though the district will waste some of the increase -- I'm counting on the current crop of board members to keep that waste to a minimum.
We either pay to educate our kids now, or we pay to incarcerate them later. That incarceration is an unequivical deadweight loss, orders of magnitude more expensive than any waste by the school district.
You are absolutely correct
Tue, 11/23/2010 - 13:25 — HJ2ss2You are absolutely correct about "no government spending money wisely".
Until someone is willing to take a good look at Wake County's programs, no matter how much money they receive, we will still need to build more prisons. Hopefully the "current crop of board members" have some idea of how clueless the system is when attempting to educate students on the "incarceration pathway".
So...
Tue, 11/23/2010 - 13:59 — Bob_SconceWhat did you have in mind? I know the board has been going over the district's budget with a fine-tooth comb, and the district had a curriculum audit a couple of years back.
Maybe I'm misinterpreting what you're saying, but you seem to be pushing the idea that WCPSS shouldn't get any more money until it gets its house in order. I disagree with this on two counts: First of all, I believe its house is substantially in order -- I know the board has been going through the budget with a fine-tooth comb, and they had a curriculum audit a few years back that it has been working on. They're not perfect (like I said before, no government is), but they're also not going hog-wild on boondoggles. Secondly, as I said before, additional money will do some good, even if a portion of it is inevitably wasted. Education is one of the highest priorities of state government. If funding the schools properly means shutting down parks, libraries and community centers, that's what needs to happen.
In answer to your question
Tue, 11/23/2010 - 15:51 — HJ2ss2In answer to your question in reference to what I had in mind. Here is a bit more concrete answer. Wake County needs to stop screaming, threatening and doling out suspensions. What they need to do is learn how to elicit cooperation from students. It works (most of the time) if you know how to do it.
I am not qualified to judge
Tue, 11/23/2010 - 14:50 — HJ2ss2I am not qualified to judge the curriculum. It seems work well for students from families that value education. My point is that until problems with the ED population are successfully addressed, we will continue to lose them in the system. No matter how good the curriculum is, it will not benefit this population. There are ways to reach these students but Wake County does not want to hear anything other than what they dictate. I say this from experience, trying to explain to a principal why an intervention does not work and being told to implement it anyway.......and later hearing an asst principal's rhetorical question, "Why can't you do what you are told?
Let me understand....
Mon, 11/22/2010 - 14:13 — Bob_SconceI just want to get this straight:
There is already a pre-existing cut planned. With that cut, and the additional 5% cut, we're talking about losing 429 teachers. With that cut and an additional 10% cut, we're talking about losing 523 teachers.
It sounds like the pre-existing cut alone, will cost the district around 330 teachers. And that's before the additional 5% or 10%?
Are these 400+ in addition to Stan's 2000?
Mon, 11/22/2010 - 13:51 — FSandYOUI say we act like Troxler and tell Bev to shove it!
2000?
Mon, 11/22/2010 - 22:52 — stan_norwalkA few point's:
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You can have an impact. For example: Last year when the BOC was considering the priorities for this years budget, the subject of closing a library came up. (Please don't start rumors - that was last year.) Each commissioner got hundreds of e-mails from all over the County. Thirty or forty people from SE Raleigh came to our public speaks out session (3PM on the first and third mondays of the month.) to defend their library. It had an effect. I don't recall a single e-mail asking to raise the County's contribution to education. Several said "don't raise my taxes". A few were about the high cost of building schools. Many were not form letters. Psychologically, I pay extra attention to a e-mail addressed to me alone and expressing a personal situation and opinion. ...nuf said.
Thanks...
Tue, 11/23/2010 - 14:02 — Bob_SconceStan --
Thanks for posting, especially that last paragraph. I don't know if your 2,000 number is realistic or not, but it's important that people are made aware of the totality of this year's budget cuts. And you're doing that.