The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

Opinion

Discussion

July 27, 2009

School districts have no reason to think of cutbacks, layoffs with stimulus money

The 2009 economic stimulus bill included about $100 billion to local school districts to be used to prevent teacher layoffs, prevent program cutbacks and promote school facility modernization programs.

So, why are some school districts in the nation still being forced to lay off teachers and increase the size of their classrooms?

The ongoing recession is forcing some districts to lay off teachers, and they say even though the federal money is helping, local revenues have been socked by the recession. In many states, such as Oklahoma, nearly half or more of state taxes go toward education.

When you start talking billions and billions of dollars, it’s hard to make the taxpaying public understand the accountability of all these dollars. To most taxpayers, they understand the massive amount of money that is being spent for public education, yet we still have teacher layoffs, program cutbacks and low per-pupil spending.

For example, in Oklahoma, it has just been reported our state is the fifth-lowest in the nation in per-pupil spending. Oklahoma public schools had nearly $5.5 billion in revenue in the 2006-2007 school year, and about $3 billion came from the state, $2 billion from local governments and nearly $651 million from the federal government. This year, Oklahoma has already received at least $130 million, with most of it going toward special education and Title I programs for low-income students.

Where in the world is this money going and why isn’t it ever enough?

If billions of brand new stimulus dollars can’t keep teachers and programs in place across the country, it begs the real question of just where the money is going and how much money is being spent on programs or processes that have nothing to do with curriculum?

We need a major overhaul in education in this nation. Education is too important to our economic future and simply throwing more money into what appears to be a black hole just doesn’t make sense.

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