State Budget Cuts Affects Local Schools


Officials with Vance County Schools and members of the Vance County Board of Education are bracing for a 2011-2012 fiscal year that is likely to include drastic cuts in funding, particularly at the state level.

The budget that has passed in the N.C. House of Representatives in the N.C. General Assembly for the coming school year could eliminate 61 positions in Vance County Schools.

This budget proposal now goes to the N.C. Senate for review and approval.

Among the House budget cuts in state funding for next year are a 48-percent cut in teacher assistants, eliminating 43 teacher assistants; a 10-percent cut to Central Office, eliminating one administrative position; a 15-percent cut in non-instructional support personnel, eliminating eight clerical/custodial positions; a six-percent cut in school building administration, eliminating two assistant principals; a four-percent cut in instructional support personnel, eliminating one instructional support position; a nine-percent cut in Academically & Intellectually Gifted (AIG) programs, eliminating one teacher; a 10-percent cut in Limited English Proficiency programs, eliminating one teacher; and a 12-percent cut in At-Risk Student Services, eliminating 4 teachers or instructional support personnel.

Reports in the news media that the proposed budget does not cut classroom teaching positions is not accurate, since the proposal clearly outlines a reduction in teachers for at-risk students, AIG students and students who speak limited English.

In addition to these proposed allotment cuts, the House budget includes a reduction in the number of school bus replacements, as well as the elimination of funding for dropout prevention grants, student diagnostics, Learn and Earn Virtual, Learn and Earn Online, mentoring, school technology and staff development.

Based on the projected annual Average Daily Membership (ADM) for the 2011-2012 school year, the Department of Public Instruction is estimating a reduction in student enrollment to 7,003 for Vance County Schools, which would reduce the state allotment for teaching positions by 13. This would be in addition to the personnel cuts in the House budget.

The House budget also calls for an 80-percent reduction in funding for textbooks, a 46-percent reduction in funding for classroom supplies and materials and a 27-percent reduction in funding for driver education programs, with the possibility that students will be required to pay a fee to receive this training.

Fund appropriations from the N.C. General Assembly make up almost two-thirds of the operating budget for our school system. With these proposed deep cuts, the forecast for the 2011-2012 school year is indeed bleak. The 2011-2012 school year will mark the fourth consecutive year that Vance County Schools has received reduced funding from the state. Local education officials are not optimistic that local funding from Vance County and educational funding from the federal government will make up the difference. Federal stimulus funds, which helped to make up the state shortfall during the current school year, have dried up. In Washington, members of Congress also are making deep cuts to slash spending. The Vance County Board of Commissioners, which appropriates local funding to the school system, has traditionally voted to maintain the same funding level over the last several years.

On top of all of these proposed cuts, the school system will be expected to “pay back” money to the state as part of the state’s mandatory reversion policy that affects all 115 school systems in North Carolina. This mandatory reversion, expected to be approximately $1.6 million, must be paid a few months after the new school year has begun. Fortunately for Vance County Schools, the decision was made in late 2010 to save the $1.4 million paid to the school system through the Education Jobs Fund as part of the federal stimulus funding. This money was appropriated after the beginning of the current school year, and the decision was made by school system administrators and the Board of Education at that time to not spend the money in anticipation of further budget cuts for the following fiscal year. This federal stimulus money will be used to off set the state mandatory reversion and help the school system avoid making even further cuts in personnel, services and programs.

N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue has vowed to veto the state budget plan if it is sent to her in its present proposed form. However, N.C. legislators believe they would have the number of votes needed to override the veto.

N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson wrote an opinion column which was published today in the News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh. It reads in part, “There has been much talk about how many employees will lose their jobs under proposed cuts. This is important, but it is not the major focus of our concern about the public school budget. Whether positions are currently filled or can be absorbed through attrition or not, it takes a certain level of funding and positions to operate a school . . . Our public schools have been reduced significantly in recent years and we were fortunate to receive federal recovery funding to help maintain needed services. The federal recovery money is almost gone, but the need remains. If we are going to have successful students graduating from our public schools to enter the workforce, military or our colleges/universities, we need adequate resources and people in our schools to meet student needs.”

The N.C. Department of Public Instruction estimates that current state proposed budget funding for 2011-2012 will result in the loss of at least 18,000 jobs in K-12 public education. North Carolina currently ranks 45th in the nation in the funding it puts into K-12 public education. The proposed budget would lower the state’s ranking to 48th among the 50 states.

The N.C. Association of School Administrators and the N.C. School Superintendents’ Association have gone on record as promoting that the N.C. General Assembly extend the one-cent sales tax for funding of public education that is scheduled to expire on June 30. The N.C. House budget will eliminate the one-cent sales tax. The associations and other organizations, through the Quality Schools Coalition, are launching a campaign entitled, “Our Children Are Worth A Penny!” They are asking boards of education, school administrators, teachers, school staff members, PTA officers, parents, chambers of commerce and local business leaders to contact their state legislators to urge that the sales tax not be eliminated.

Vance County Schools