School Budget Cuts Could’ve Been Worse
Brent Finnegan -- March 16th, 2010
For months, local teachers and school officials have been bracing for impact as the state budget was being pruned in Richmond. There will still be state cuts to local public school budgets — about $1.5 million in Harrisonburg — but they may not be as severe as once expected. It could have been a lot worse.
Kate Queram reports in today’s Daily News Record:
According to [Harrisonburg City Public Schools Superintendent Don] Ford, cuts to the city school division are likely to top out at around $1.5 million, for a total budget of about $53.7 million.
That means that instead of cutting 38 full-time positions – the division’s worst-case scenario – the Harrisonburg School Board may have to cut just one.
The story also reports projected cuts to the Rockingham County School Budget around $3.5 million.
The two-year budget cuts $645 from public schools systems statewide.
But the long-term budget and revenue challenges (beyond 2012) remain unresolved. A column in today’s PilotOnline points out:
The spending plan they crafted pushes many pressing obligations into future years, and it dumps still more state responsibilities onto local governments struggling with their own revenue losses. The final product may keep Virginia afloat for a few months, but it can’t make the state seaworthy over the long term.
Tags: budget, education, K-12, public schools
They kicked the school funding meltdown 12 months down the calendar by restoring funding re-apportioned to NoVA schools – looks like they funded it by stealing the money from the teacher’s retirement fund. Isn’t that special? This is what passes for “fiscal responsibility” in the General Assembly.