How Budget Cuts Are Impacting You, Children/Youth, Your School, Your State? Don’t Just Discuss Around the Water Cooler. Tell CEC!

We’re all talking about it:  the devastating impact budget cuts are having on education.  State and local budgets being stretched to the limits and now, the new leadership in the House of Representatives is vowing to cut $100 billion from domestic spending, which includes education. 

In response to these proposed cuts, U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan stated, “millions of students with special needs wouldn’t get the services they need.”

Help CEC combat these threats to education funding by sharing with us (either by blog posting or pubpol@cec.sped.org) how budget cuts in your state and/or school district are impacting you, children/youth, and your school, in areas such as:

• Impact on student learning/achievement;
• Change in class size;
• Change in workload/caseload;
• Impact on collaboration time;
• Layoffs;
• Impact on services/resources provided;
• Impact on professional development opportunities;
• Any in any other way! 

Also, be sure to forward any local media reports of education funding cuts to CEC! Just send them here: : pubpol@cec.sped.org

These threats to education funding will intensify over the next few months as Congress will be tasked with finalizing Fiscal Year 2011 funding levels and creating Fiscal Year 2012 funding levels.  CEC will use your feedback as examples of the REAL impact of funding cuts in our advocacy initiatives.

Help CEC inform policymakers of the dangers of cutting education funding today!!

Questions? Email us: pubpol@cec.sped.org

Comments

[Deborah Sale Butler]

In response to an article in the Contra Costa Times regarding bringing disabled children back into the public schools due to budget cuts, I wrote: What we have learned, from having a child in the Los Angeles Unified School District, is that there is a long-standing, fractured approach to special education. The district, as a whole, is not prepared to deal with the needs of children with communication disorders, sensory issues or social delays. Our child is splintered, with great skills in reading/writing and math, but remedial communication skills. The district funds services that meet the barest minimum standards for a general population, but do nothing for the specific needs of the students in question. As they phase out private placement, they're also phasing out non-public-agencies and putting overworked and undertrained district employees in their place. Until the districts evaluate the true costs of hiring well-trained professionals to provide supports in a general ed setting versus the slew of lawsuits for not doing so, we'll continue to have a piece-meal approach to special education services. When legislators need to trim what appear to be excesses, there will be random slashing, as there is now, since no careful consideration is being put into where the money goes at present. For now, we retain legal council and fight to maintain the services that our son is legally entitled to, while we work to change the districts' policies to understand and serve it's most vulnerable students.

[Foreign Language Learner]

This is pretty sad news. If budget cuts keep happening we will start to see our schools focus more on fund raising programs when that time can be spent to better education.

[m]

I think that are funds should first go to the education of our children and not less important things.

[Dorothea]

The educational system in the United States has really declined. I don't understand how out of one breath, legislatures can complain about the US being so far behind other countries with regards to education, but at the same time, continuously cut educational funding. In my county, the lack of funding has impacted us tremendously. Class sizes are growing by 2-3 students,teachers are being layed off and furloughed, and salaries have been cut. Teachers do not want to spend extra time outside of the school day for collaboration or anything else for that matter because they feel that they are now expected to work without pay. They also feel that they are not appreciated or valued. Many special needs students are unable to get the services they need due to the budget cuts. For example, students who need resource math are not able to take it because it is not offered due to the lack of funding. If things continue to go in this direction, all of our children, especially students with disabilities, will be left behind.

[H]

Sadly funding in education is a completely underrated subject. There are too many people out there that don't realize the cost of educating children, especially those with special needs, and those people are usually the ones that control the funding. There seems to be no set plan, just random slashing of important positions that are necessary for the educating of our children.

[Yolanda]

I agree with the fact if we continut to go through budget cuts our special needs students will definitley be left behind. Our exceptional students are already left behind because when it comes to scores the school systems are mainly concerned about the regular education students. Sure they add our students in inclusive classes, however the teachers I have worked with go so fast and have a problem thinking special educators are taking over their class rooms. So when one problem is solved with special needs students another one is sure to rise.

[Yolanda]

Yeah after a while the schools will have to focus on fund raising ideas instead of budgeting ideas. Where does this leave education and interventions for our already failing students and our already behind students.

[Kevin Porter]

It really is tough for schools, even for college students who are paying so much for a degree when they aren't even sure if they'll have a job or not.

[K. N. W.]

I am a special education teacher in a very small school district in New York State. We have had major cuts for the past two years, which includes cutting many extra-curriculars and teachers. There are many problems with this, only a few of which I can write about here. First, because of our lack of teachers, we are forced to combine many of our self-contained classes that should not be combined. For example: I will be teaching a combined 11th and 12th grade self-contained ELA class. This is an issue because the 11th grade students need to take a regents while the 12th grade students do not. How do I appropriately prepare my 11th grade students for the regents while preparing my 12th grade students for the skills they will need in college? The second issue deals with the cut to our extra-curricular activities. Many colleges are very competitive and are looking for students that are well rounded. How can our students stand out from the crowd if many of the sports, music programs, and art programs that they excel in no longer exist? The last point I would like to make encompasses the difficulty our district faces as a whole due to the budget cuts. The state is expecting more and more from the teachers and students of our state. The state wants higher test scores, more accountability, etc. How can we possibly expect to achieve these standards when our programs, and teachers are being cut. On top of this New York state has cut down on how many times a year they are willing to administor each regents. That means less chances for each student to get a better score, which in turn means lower test scores, which in turn means poor results for the teachers. How can this possibly make sense? Our state is and will continue to make budget cuts to our district. The state will also expect more and more from it's teachers. I don't know what this means for the future of our school district and teaching in general.

[Ravien]

I am teaching in a rural area of Louisiana. I am a regular education teacher, but I am currently working toward a Masters of Education with a concentration in Special Education. I have recently seen increases in class size. I believe that the districts are trying to make do by employing larger numbers of para educators that are meant to assist certified teachers. I think that ideally this would be a viable option if the certified teachers were receiving training on how to supervise the para educators which would lead to effectively utilizing this additional human resource. I also believe that para educators should be more adequately trained to offer supplemental instruction. A possible multi-tiered structure that would qualify paras to do certain jobs may help. What are your thoughts about budgetary restrictions as they would apply to the training and implementation of such a plan? Also, are there any types of regulations that you are aware of that may relate to this?