Interesting reading from NCDPI :

TO:       NC Public School Teachers

FROM:   State Superintendent June Atkinson

DATE:   Nov. 10, 2010

   This week, the NC Department of Public Instruction submitted to the Office of State Budget and Management a list of possible budget cuts totaling 5 percent and 10 percent to the State Public School Fund and the Department of Public Instruction. This list was required of us and of every other state agency as North Carolina leaders prepare to determine how to deal with a budget shortfall that totals more than $3.2 billion. This shortfall is due to the 2011 end of the federal stabilization money that was provided in 2009, the elimination of temporary tax increases, and the reestablishment of several one-time cuts such as textbooks. I am writing about this not to be alarmist or depressing but because a cut in this range of magnitude will have a significant impact on public schools and on your work and mine. As a point of reference, for 2010-11, $7.1 billion in state funds was appropriated to support public schools. The potential level of the cuts is very large. A 5 percent cut would total $396 million. A 10 percent cut would total $792 million. And, it is important to remember that these cuts, were they to be implemented, would be leveled in addition to the $304 million cut that is already built into the budget as a recurring cut. (That is right – our current public school budget for North Carolina gives a certain amount to your school districts and then requires that your district’s leaders return a total of $304 million to the state, which is a recurring 4 percent cut.)

   What would it take to make up a cut at that level ($396 million is a new 5 percent cut plus the cut already included in the budget)? It could mean reducing 4,342 or more teachers, possibly 53 percent of teacher assistants, a reduction of maybe 765 instructional support personnel and $112 million from categorical allotments including Career and Technical Education and Exceptional Children. This does not even include the 5 percent cut of $3.2 million at the state education agency, the agency that has already been cut more over the past two years than any other state agency. It also does not include the $4.4 million reduction to the More at Four program, a $1.5 million reduction which the state education agency must make to the three residential schools for the deaf and blind which are being transferred to the NCDPI on June 1, or a $1.5 million reduction to the funding for dropout prevention grants, the teaching fellows program and other funding that flows through the NCDPI specifically for education support organizations such as Communities In Schools and Teach for America.

   I know that paying attention to financial issues may not be your favorite way to spend time, but this year it is especially important to pay attention to the state’s financial situation and to make sure that the legislators who represent you know what the impact of their choices will be. We will do all that we can to work with you and with our education association leaders in the upcoming year to provide you with information you need to be informed and to communicate with your legislators about what you need to be effective in the classroom.

                      Regards,

                      June Atkinson

OH good LORD!!!  I have never seen so much whining and complaining in our society!  Everything has to be EQUAL?!?!?  It has never been and will never be!  No wonder our world is in the shape it is in.  Granted, this issue here, isn't a GLOBAL issue, but it's just one of the many factors in what's wrong with the world.  Instead of being THANKFUL for what you have, people just have to look at what they don't have instead of looking at how fortunate they are to have the things that everyone has and able to enjoy.

Thank you ... as the father of four daughters I welcome more opportunity for them to participate.