AZ making massive cuts in education

[lovbeingamommy]

Yes, it's true. I've heard 891 million lately. Here's a short YouTube clip I was sent from the AZ Education Assoc on what we can do to show support for schools.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4NJ16MS4Lc&feature=channel_page

It's bad enough we're 49 or 50 regarding how much we spend on students in the classroom and now additional cuts :

[Aries1985]

As a former teacher, I can say that this is the LAST thing we need . I taught for 4 months, with 32+ kindergarteners with no curriculum. It was absolutely horrible. I am scared for when my daughter goes to school.

[tallulahma]

so, are we saying that after all these years of mismanagement & poor education results that putting more money into a completely broken system is going to help in any tangible way?

there are great charter schools and great homeschooling laws... so the possibility for a good education is still here.

But i think that looking at money as the source of problems or the cure of problems existing is nonsense.

between no child left behind & lack of education budget transparency- the system is totally bunk & corrupt.

as a future homeschooling mama, i really do not want my tax dollars going towards a system that ISNT WORKING EVEN A LITTLE.

why not focus on cutting admin costs & moving that into classrooms.

[Aries1985]

Money isn't the total issue, but it would go a long way to helping.

Teachers shouldn't have to spend so much out of pocket for bare essentials for the classroom; tissues & crayons for one thing. Good curriculum should be standard. The schools I grew up in were WAY better equipped than the schools I've been in here. I think it's sad that specials aren't already standards in the AZ schools I've been in.

So yes, I think the budget cuts are horrible because we need more money to improve what was already lacking and already needed more funding. Our low taxes are nice here, but not at the expense of our schools, imo.

[tallulahma]

Originally Posted by Aries1985

Money isn't the total issue, but it would go a long way to helping.

Teachers shouldn't have to spend so much out of pocket for bare essentials for the classroom; tissues & crayons for one thing. Good curriculum should be standard. The schools I grew up in were WAY better equipped than the schools I've been in here. I think it's sad that specials aren't already standards in the AZ schools I've been in.

So yes, I think the budget cuts are horrible because we need more money to improve what was already lacking and already needed more funding. Our low taxes are nice here, but not at the expense of our schools, imo.

ita with you. I just think that serious reform would have to happen BEFORE money would help.

I think people should be UP IN ARMS about the current state of our education.

all I ever hear about is "we need more money"

thats it.

every parent i talk to about the schools here bring up needing more money.

i think more people need to be asking why administrators make over 140,000 dollars a year and teachers can barely pay the rent.

even napolitano said she wanted the districts to start moving monies from admin to classroom, voluntarily so that they do not have to start mandating it.

why not start calling and demanding mandates on that. to better utilize the money that exists.

why cant more parents get involved?

public school is not free daycare. if you choose to live in az, and you choose to utilize the public school system, then you need to choose to either get involved or share some of the responsibility of the problems.

the system is broken, so while its getting fixed, start working together to make it better.

we live in a country where schools went from being a privilege to being a right. i do not get it.

nak

[lovbeingamommy]

Originally Posted by tallulahma

so, are we saying that after all these years of mismanagement & poor education results that putting more money into a completely broken system is going to help in any tangible way?

there are great charter schools and great homeschooling laws... so the possibility for a good education is still here.

But i think that looking at money as the source of problems or the cure of problems existing is nonsense.

between no child left behind & lack of education budget transparency- the system is totally bunk & corrupt.

as a future homeschooling mama, i really do not want my tax dollars going towards a system that ISNT WORKING EVEN A LITTLE.

why not focus on cutting admin costs & moving that into classrooms.

I would agree that admin costs need to be cut. Middle and upper managment needs to be streamlined and more money funneled into classrooms and as pay for quality teachers. However, with the amount of monies that they are going to cut back on a lot of teachers are going to lose jobs and end up losing homes, going without insurance, and possibly having to file for bankrupcy. Classrooms will be completely overloaded with possibly over 40 kids to one teacher. Supplies will be cut, specials classes will be lost, and programs will be suspended. Less money is most definitely going to compound an already bad situation.

Charters will be affected since they receive public funding. These cuts will affect so many people and unfortunately for our children their education will now be more at risk than it ever was before. It's such a sad situation all around

[tallulahma]

i completely agree its sad.

what are the parents doing? are they letter writing the boards? admins? representatives? governor?

are the higher ups taking pay cuts before lay offs?

i mean. these kids have parents. what are they doing?

[lovbeingamommy]

Originally Posted by tallulahma

i completely agree its sad.

what are the parents doing? are they letter writing the boards? admins? representatives? governor?

are the higher ups taking pay cuts before lay offs?

i mean. these kids have parents. what are they doing?

I have no idea what's going on since we've just been notified this past week about how drastic the cuts may be. I think the teachers are basically in shock considering what we're being told in e-mails. Next week meetings are being scheduled to let us know more of the whole story.

[shelbean91]

Nobody's doing anything yet. this is new. I'm a teacher and a parent. Things are really, really bad and don't seem to be getting better.

[lovbeingamommy]

Originally Posted by shelbean91

Nobody's doing anything yet. this is new. I'm a teacher and a parent. Things are really, really bad and don't seem to be getting better.

Has your district mentioned how much will be cut yet? I've heard that 1st and 2nd yr teachers in Deer Valley are basically done by Mar 1st even though they have contracts. Apparently, the contract has a clause that states "if monies are available" THAT IS SERIOUSLY SCARY!! I'm not in Deer Valley, but I heard this from a pretty reliable source.

Oh yeah, and in my district we've been told no more copying without principal approval.

[shelbean91]

Nothing yet, but things are frozen and we're getting talked to this upcoming week. It's something like millions of dollars have to be cut from the 08-09 budget- which is mostly over. Not even mentioning the 09-10 school year. It is horribly, terribly scary to me. I'm hoping I can stay at my school, in my grade, but I really need to be worried about whether or not I even have a job at all. There are lots of possibilities being kicked around and of course rumors are horrible about all the what ifs.

They've told us the funding issues could be resolved with a 1/2 cent sales tax increase, but as far as I know, the legislature isn't even considering that. Not to mention sales are down all over anyway, so who knows?

[Mama2Rio]

this is really bad... it's really hard for me to want to stay in AZ because of this. Schools should be #1 priority. i knew that school systems weren't as great as the schools i went to, but this is just crazy.

my brother goes to ASU. he was telling me that since the state is cutting off ASU in their budget, they want to double tuition! and they might close some of the satellite schools (which is where he attends his classes). i know that he attended a protest against all this... it's just sad that no one is doing anything about this... my OL is years away from starting school, but it troubles me.

[shelbean91]

Michael Crow (ASU president, who I'm NOT fond of) is suggesting closing ASU polytechnic (east) campus, despite the fact that they just spent something like 103 million (billion?) dollars to expand the campus, there is a flight school that partners with williams gateway airport- which is HUGE potential for financial growth, and they have more than quadrupled their attendance since openign in 1996 (?). Also, talk of doubling tuition from $5k a year to $11k a year (more than doubling, by my math. He said that tuition needs to be increased b/c of the recession, but he's pushed for tuition increase every year that I can remember and we haven't been in a recession all that time, from my memory.

At elementary, we hear about increased class size, fewer teachers, special areas (pe, music, art, etc.,) and all day kinder being cut. And our governor is talking about even MORE cuts for next year. I think people are going to revolt against her pretty soon. They're not even looking for any suggestions for solutions besides cutting, cutting, cutting. No ideas to increase revenue. I guess the only solution at this point is to bombard our representatives with emails, phone calls, and letters to let them know our displeasure.

[Full Heart]

Napalitano ran on Education reform and under her education went from 49th to 50th. It got worse. My mother works for a school, which I won't name and they are 45k, 45 THOUSAND over budget on TONER. Giving the school more money for copying is not going to help. They need to find a better way to do things. For instance she had to have consent forms signed by parents. They didn't have the consent forms printed out by the time they were needed. So she pulled out her lap top (hers not the schools) which had the forms on it and the parents were able to sign on her lap top. The parents loved it! Nothing to loose, you know for a fact it go to the right person, and then it can be printed out when they were able instead of worrying about being behind. I was never for all day kindergarten anyway. I had issues with schools here which is why I pulled them out. Like mandating homework, that was a huge issue for me. Kindergarten's with homework, ugh even now it makes me mad.

We def have to find a better way to spend the money that is already available. If they spent 1/2 the cost of a child in a public school on private school or homeschool reimbursement our state would be a lot better off. More options the better.

[lovbeingamommy]

Originally Posted by shelbean91

Michael Crow (ASU president, who I'm NOT fond of) is suggesting closing ASU polytechnic (east) campus, despite the fact that they just spent something like 103 million (billion?) dollars to expand the campus, there is a flight school that partners with williams gateway airport- which is HUGE potential for financial growth, and they have more than quadrupled their attendance since openign in 1996 (?). Also, talk of doubling tuition from $5k a year to $11k a year (more than doubling, by my math. He said that tuition needs to be increased b/c of the recession, but he's pushed for tuition increase every year that I can remember and we haven't been in a recession all that time, from my memory.

I've heard about this too just a few days ago. My friend that I work with is also an ASU professor and she mentioned the closing of Polytech East. I just hate all this waiting I just want to know now what's going to happen.

Originally Posted by Full Heart

Napalitano ran on Education reform and under her education went from 49th to 50th. It got worse. My mother works for a school, which I won't name and they are 45k, 45 THOUSAND over budget on TONER. Giving the school more money for copying is not going to help. They need to find a better way to do things.

Yep, I believe it. I've been a teacher a long time and what I see each morning in the copy room is a line of teachers copying worksheets : Goodness sakes, can't teachers find other ways to assess kids : Paper worksheets are so outdated and especially when every classroom at my school has at least 5-10 laptops.

I'm just seriously thankful that several of the schools in my district recently placed a moratorium on copying. Hopefully other common sense approaches will follow and teachers jobs can be saved.