Budget Cuts by Rambling Raven
By Raven • Apr 28th, 2010 • Category: Rambling Raven •
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Budget Cuts by Rambling Raven
In this recession, many companies and agencies are making drastic budget cuts. Tens of thousand of people are losing their jobs and their benefits. There is one area that is being hit hard that will have long-lasting harmful effects. The field of education is now taking its lumps. Across the nation schools are closing, teachers are being laid off and children are paying the price for it all.
In the Chicago Public Schools a memo was sent out to the schools and the parents. The parents were notified over the weekend that drastic changes were going to take place.
* Class sizes are to increase there will be 35-40 students per class.
* Non-varsity sports will be taken away from students.
* More than 2,700 teachers will be laid-off.
* Reductions in funding for magnet, Montessori, gifted and IB programs will occur.
* Significant cuts in Bilingual education.
* Cuts to full-day kindergarten will occur.
* Reduction or elimination to after school and summer school programs.
* Significant reductions to charter and contract schools.
* Significant reduction in school security.
* Significant reduction in school janitorial staff.
* Significant reduction in school support staff such as counselors, social workers,
psychologists, nurses and crisis teams.
* Significant reduction in art, music, and gym classes.
The Chicago Public Schools claims a $368 million deficit. Now how did this occur without someone stepping in a long time ago, I couldn’t tell you. The school board is blaming the state and the state is blaming the school board for inadequate use of funding. No matter who is at fault here, our children will lose out. Can you imagine attending a school system with all the cuts I mentioned above? Can you imagine attending a school where there may only be one janitor to clean behind 600 students? Can you imagine a school where there are no sports? Can you imagine attending a school system that does not have a nurse to attend to children who may hurt themselves, or those who need medication?
We seem to bitch and moan about everything in America. Yet, we can’t seem to find any voices to stand up for education. Teachers try but people turn on us and tell us we just want to save our jobs. Hell, many people believe that most teachers don’t do anything anyway so I know that we will not get any sympathy. What I don’t understand is where are the parents’ voices. It is the children, after all, who will lose the most. The future of our babies are in jeopardy, especially those children who are considered “at risk.” And we all know what communities these so called “at risk” come from.
If we are not careful we will fall further and further behind the rest of the modern world. We will end up like many third world nations: an elite few while the majority are the uneducated poor. What worries me is that too many children of color are getting left further and further behind. We are having trouble competing now so I can only imagine how far we are going to fall. The scary part is that we see the destruction but we seem to not mind it.
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Raven is an educator with a B.A. in Psychology and a M.A. in Education. She has been an avid reader since childhood. Her favorite genres are mystery, suspense, and horror, although she will give any genre a try. She is a life long resident of Chicago. Her love of books opened her mind to people, places and events far beyond her Chicago home. Reading helped to shape her world and her opinion of the events that took place within it. No matter what demands her career requires of her, she has always found time to read and write in a journal. Along with reading and journaling, she loves to watch the sunset, and discuss hot topics with family and friends. She loves baseball, horror movies, mysteries, listening to music from every corner of the world and expressing her view of the latest books with the women of APOOO.
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