Well, Texas Governor, Rick Perry, is bound and determined to take us all the way down to the BIG 50. Texas education is currently ranked 48th in the United States and with the proposed budget cuts for the upcoming school year, things are not looking any better. Gover Perry is calling on legislators to pass a bill that would cut $27 billion dollars from the education fund. He refuses to take responsibility for this by passing it on to local school districts to decide how they are going to do their part to help with this deficit. The arts are always in trouble, who knows what will happen now!?!
Texas educators gathered at the state capitol this past weekend to let them know education is too important to make these kind of adjustments to. I have posted the article below for more info.
What is the education climate where you live? Are the Arts supported in your state?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7469904.html
Not sure about my state, but in my district, they are cutting k-6 music, art, p.e., library, and the technology teachers next year. :(
ReplyDeleteYikes! These are definitely scary times. :( The education budget in PA has issues as well, and school districts across the state are facing huge budget deficits. Our district was facing a $1.5 million dollar budget shortfall even after an administrative and support staff pay freeze, an early retirement package (most of whom will not be replaced), and other cost cutting measures.
ReplyDeleteI am proud to say that this past Monday our teacher's union voted and passed a pay freeze for teachers with an 89% majority. As far as we know, we're the first district in PA to do this. This means that we most likely will NOT have to furlough any teachers next year, and most classes and programs will be saved. Sure, it's not ideal, but many people in many professions have had to forgo pay raises. It's been said that the only difference most of our students will notice next year is cheaper classroom supplies. I feel very proud to work with this group of people and extremely lucky to be in a district that values the arts!
The education climate where I live is not good. In Indiana, the state administration has proposed a laundry list of "education reform" measures that has caused state Democrats to walk out of the statehouse. Teachers and teacher groups who have opposed the reforms have been labeled as "obstructionist" and this has been basically all proposed in a "my way or the highway" fashion. Morale among teachers is very low, and I'd expect many of our veteran teachers to get out if the measures pass and are signed into law.
ReplyDeleteSupport for the arts is a little different because it's more local. 8 years ago, despite significant public support, our school board made necessary budget cuts that disproportionately affected instrumental music (while board members kept their employee health insurance even though they are not employees). We lost our elementary program and 9 of 24 staff members district-wide. Now the new administration has shown signs of a renewed commitment and there has been some reinvestment, but all signs are not great. Just last week, an administrator told a group of instrumental music teachers, "there will be no more coasting. We expect results," and then declined to elaborate on what the "results" were. So, for me the jury is still out. The details seem to change every day, so we'll see how it comes out.