For This Year And The Future
This from the Prichard Blog:
Over at Prich, Susan has been putting some scale to the school funding shortfall. While in Frankfort there are no signs of hope.
For the past four years declines in state and local revenues for Kentucky schools were largely offset by federal dollars. That relief is now a thing of the past.
[W]e know that the trend for this year and beyond will be decline unless state leaders step up in the current legislative session. We also know those funding losses will pose a grave danger to Kentucky's bold commitment to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in higher education and in the job markets of the future...
[L]ooking to the current year and the future, we know our schools are now working with a federal decline and a state increase that is nowhere near enough to make up those losses. We also have reason to worry about local funding. The newest report on state revenue says that July to December state property tax collections in 2011 dropped more than 9% from the 2010 level. If local tax receipts show a similar trend, the results could be disastrous. It's too early to know that will happen, but definitely time to be very concerned that it might.
4 comments:
Governor's budget plan tonight didn't sound like he was too impressed with this plea by Prichard folk,as all I heard was Ed cuts. What difference does it matter if you get 4000 more kids into early ed if you are not going to have something for them to matriculate toward.
Some bond funds for a few Category 5 school projects and of course (and as I predicted in an earlier blog) money for downtown Lexington and Rupp Arena. I just absolutely don't get it spending more money on downtown Lexington and UK basketball when we have counties that are barely able to support kids education and are void of real medical care for its citizens.
Actually, I do get it thanks to our former Ag commissioner who has so effectively demonstrated why Frankfort needs schools to be more efficient and accountable with their resources. GO CATS!
So we are spending about 700 less per student (14% reduction)but expecting better performance because. . . ? We have ramped up the curriculum, bought overpriced vendor assessments so we can compare ourselves and are expecting teachers to invest countless ours doing program reviews for arts, writing and PL/V. My students just took end of course exams in U.S. history and scored lower than they should because one quarter of the instrument included pre-civil war questions. (Kentucky juniors are suppose to cover Reconstruction to current time).
Folks we are going in the wrong direction in more was than just financial.
All I have heard about for over a decade as an administrator is collaboration and stakeholder involvement. Apparently that doesn't apply when it comes to our Commissioner and our legislators.
Fayette County must not have too many budget problems. They have experienced teachers working as aids because the principals don't like them and think they are too old. Others are made to just sit and do nothing even though the principal tells the district they are in a real job position. And this is in just one downtown school. Fayette County is doing well.
Fayette County tries to get rid of teachers only if they have a disability so they don't have to follow the ADA. Check it out. They don't want to spend a bit of money to accommodate like the rest of the world has to so they attack them personally and try to ruin their reputation to run them off. That is how Fayette County tries to save money.
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