Minnesota Schools Need Recovery and Reinvestment
July 14th, 2009 at 9:52 am By Laura Huiras
Minnesota will need a different kind of recovery plan in the future for K-12 education with schools balancing the books by sacrificing schools positions. Economic times are difficult, but education is a necessity that demands continuing commitment even through these times.
School administrators and teachers are taking pay cuts or freezes and even sharing their time between school districts. The governor’s decision to delay state payments to school districts has forced schools to exhaust resources to avoid layoffs. But that isn’t the case with Minnesota’s largest school district. Anoka-Hennepin cut 160 teaching positions to narrow a $15.8 million budget shortfall. The St. Paul School District, the second largest in the state, laid off 142 teachers to make up for a $25 million dollar budget gap.
The alarming question: How many of these layoffs are permanent? The length of time we will see overcrowded classrooms, fewer electives given to students, and more consolidation of schools, administrators, and staff is unknown. School administrators and teachers are sacrificing, while some of their jobs are sacrificed to balance the budget. Our state needs a highly educated workforce in the future through a reinvestment in education to avoid a prolonged road to recovery. Whether these cuts are temporary or lasting, they will nevertheless be detrimental to the education of Minnesota students.
LikeTags: Education Funding, Schools
