Schools Need an Approved Education Budget Now

DBerkhalter@AlabamaSchoolBoards.org
334/277-9700 or 800/562-0601

MONTGOMERY - The Alabama Association of School Boards is calling for a special session now and quick approval of an education budget that maintains the level of K-12 public education support outlined in the House-approved budget. The Senate's failure to pass the education budget May 19 hurts Alabama's schoolchildren. Without a budget, our students will lose because . . .

• Thousands of teachers will lose their jobs at a time when the state has invested heavily in efforts to recruit, retain and train highly qualified teachers. Even with a teacher shortage looming, gifted teachers will leave the state simply for pay and more job security. We've encouraged our brightest young minds to go into this profession only to give them a pink slip. 

• The delay is counterproductive to effective and efficient management of schools. Efforts to promote student achievement through programs that work will be stalled. Ordering textbooks will be shelved. Scholastic planning for the school year, which usually begins on or before July 1, could be delayed.

• K-12 schools are devastated by proration. Not only has higher education's reckless attempt to add an imaginary $25 million to the education budget thrown local school systems into a financial limbo, but if colleges/universities have their way, it could mean deeper cuts for education next year. Proration more heavily impacts public schoolchildren since state funding makes up a greater percentage of K-12 schools' budgets when compared to institutions of higher education.

• There are few other funding sources for K-12 schools. K-12 can't raise tuition, charge fees, launch lucrative fund-raising campaigns or ask students to cover state education budget cuts and the rising costs of fuel to run buses, utilities to heat and cool classrooms, or even textbooks and library resources for student use.  Salaries, which account for the majority of school budgets, can't be prorated. That leaves only 15 percent to 20 percent of local budgets that can absorb cuts. With the economy sliding, local tax revenue is almost nonexistent in struggling school systems, and state-funding is their only lifeline.

Higher education's effort to bully the Senate worked, but the day was a sad loss for our students. They deserve better. The stakes are too high. We need a responsible education budget, now.

May 2008