Lynchburg Business

Budgeting for Reductions: How Will Local Schools Cope with Cuts?

Issue: April 2010 by Daniel T. Richardson in Education, Inside The Magazine

“I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.”

– Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820

In last month’s article, we discussed how the state of Virginia funds education. Between now and then, a lot has happened that directly affects your local school system and how much they have to spend, or cut, in order to cope with the newly, drastically reduced education budget.

On March 15, both the General Assembly and the Senate passed a $70 billion funding plan. The General Assembly passed the plan on a 73-23 vote, while the Senate passed it 34-6. This budget means a record cut of $250 million from public education. With the release of this budget, the Virginia State Department of Education also released projected state funding to the various school districts within Virginia. The projections use estimates of student Average Daily Membership and projected sales tax, both of which are subject to change. In addition, the budget plan now goes to Governor Bob McDonnell’s office.

According to the Superintendent’s Memo released on the Virginia Department of Education’s website, “the Governor will have several options that include: signing the budgets as presented to him with no changes, returning one or both of the budgets to the General Assembly with vetoes, returning one or both of the budgets to the General Assembly with amendments, or returning one or both of the budgets to the General Assembly with some combination of vetoes and amendments.” Further, “after the Governor completes his actions on the two budgets, a reconvened ‘veto session’ will occur where the General Assembly will consider any amendments or vetoes proposed by Governor McDonnell. The reconvened session is scheduled for April 21, 2010.” After this meeting, Governor McDonnell will sign the budget into law.

Because of the difficult economic times, both the state and localities are facing serious financial hardships and decisions which, more than ever, could adversely affect the quality of education. According to an article on WDBJ7.com on February 25, “Lynchburg schools could lose anywhere from $12 to $17 million in funding next year. That could lead to everything from more time off to school closings.” The city is also looking at the possibility of closing two schools, Hutcherson Early Learning Center and Perrymont Elementary, though Lynchburg City school administrators have recommended keeping the schools open next year.

“Neither choice is one we want to make, but these are ones that we think we have to make,” said Lynchburg City School Superintendent, Paul McKendrick, quoted in the same article.

In Appomattox County, school leaders face the same difficult decisions.

“Possible 2010-2011 reductions include areas such as administration, instruction, clerical, custodial, maintenance, transportation, support staff, staff development, field trips, substitutes and sports,” said Superintendent Dorinda Grasty. “A reduction of approximately 10 percent would result in larger class sizes, reductions in remedial and at-risk programs, less administrative support, additional job responsibilities for existing staff, and limiting or elimination of extra curricular student activities.”

Grasty adds that the problem doesn’t just arise from state school budgets.

“Local governments and municipalities are also being hit extremely hard with budget reductions from the state this year and we do not know the amount the locality will be able to provide to our school division. That could further increase our budget shortfall,” she said.

During a February 26 visit to Central Virginia Community College to meet with Lynchburg area business and government leaders, McDonnell was asked how he plans to create jobs while cutting the education budget.

“We’ve cut public safety and higher education and some other areas of the budget so badly over the last couple of years that the only places that were really left to make some additional reductions were in health care and in K-12 education,” he said. “In the short run, there’s no question there’s going to be some pain in K-12 and in our health care areas. But what I want to do is make the investments now in job creation, economic development, tax and regulatory tools that allow me to go out and tell the Virginia story and bring jobs to Lynchburg, Bedford, Appomattox, and all of the state so next year we can be talking about how many jobs we brought in.”

In tough economic times, there’s little doubt that difficult decisions must be made, but it’s important to remember that education is bound to maintain specific state and federal regulations in testing, and that these standards continue to inch up every year. Because of this, there is an increased need for instructional remedial services as well as ever-increasing student data analysis and reporting, not to mention careful monitoring of state and federal guidelines.

Now, in an era of ever decreasing funding, pertinent questions arise: Who is going to be responsible for carrying out these additional duties? At what point will it be realized that the continued expansion of duties on an already strained educational system will lead to a decrease in the primary service for which education exists, that of teaching our young people? For McDonnell, these questions are best answered by placing trust in our school leaders, workers and administrators.

“I’ve got great faith in the leadership skills of our teachers, our principals, our school board members…that they’ll find ways to reduce costs in administration, in overhead…but make sure that we keep our focus on the classrooms, the teachers and technology,” he said.