News
Where else to cut? School budgets wrung dry
February 26, 2010
Area officials: Where else to cut? School budgets wrung dry
By Aliana Ramos and Vicki Grooms
If the proposed $100 million in S.C. education budget cuts are carried out, area school districts will be forced to consider such unpalatable choices as increasing class size and layoffs.
The proposal currently under consideration by the House Ways and Means Committee calls for measures including elimination of $6.5 million in textbooks and an $84.5 million reduction in per-student spending for the 2010-2011 year.
In the past 18 months, school districts already have experienced cuts of more than 20 percent, said spokesman Jim Foster, with the S.C. Department of Education.
"We have to figure out to what extent we can do the things the General Assembly has mandated we do without the funds to do it," Foster said.
"I'm going to have to spend at the 2010 level with funding at the 1995 level," said Will Garland, chairman of the Horry County Board of Education. "What they're talking about is the base of $1,630 [per student]. Based on the wealth of the district, Horry County will only get funded at about 40 percent of that ... about $652 [per student]. This is going to be a fairly huge hit for Horry County Schools."
Garland said the district's saving grace is that there is stimulus money available to cushion the cut, but using that will only postpone the inevitable, as he doesn't believe the economy will improve next year.
He said the district has already increased class size and that class size could grow again. He said he is guessing that the board will try to protect its academies, Early College High School and the K-4 program, but "probably everything else is on the table."
"Obviously, we want to protect the core curriculum as much as we can," Garland said.
Georgetown County School District Superintendent Randy Dozier said everything is on the table, when it comes to finding ways to balance the budget amid projected cuts.
"All those things we try to stay away from like increasing classroom size and layoffs come into play," Dozier said. "I do not know how you can avoid it."
Teachers and other district employees could face five to 10 days of furlough next year, which could be particularly difficult for husbands and wives both employed by the district.
"For one household, that could mean 10 to 15 to 20 days without a paycheck," Dozier said. "That is two weeks to a month's pay."
Dozier said the district would consider outsourcing the alternative education and adult education programs.
"There is not a lot left to cut. We are already pretty lean," Dozier said. "The only saving grace is stimulus money. There are also some K-4 money available and Race to the Top funds that could help offset the cuts, but those are only temporary solutions."
Dozier said it's difficult to project the total amounts of the cuts because the proposals still have to work itself through the ways and means committee as well as the full state House of Representatives and Senate.
The budget proposal also calls for the elimination of $3million to help failing schools, $2 million for salary supplements, $9 million in Education Improvement Act funds, and $4.6 million in cuts to the S.C. Department of Education, Foster said.
The department already has 115 vacancies that it has not filled.
The Department of Education is responsible for curriculum support, accountability for federal and state testing mandates, office of school choice, struggling school programs, school buses and a finance department that processes the payments to school districts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact ALIANA RAMOS at 443-2434 or via email at aramos@thesunnews.com.
Contact VICKI GROOMS at 443-2401 or via email at vgrooms@thesunnews.com.
