Cuts Hurt: The Long-Term Ill Effects of Shortsighted Education Cuts

When the economy catches a cold, our schools get pneumonia. Today, pneumonia is spreading from state to state, and our students are suffering the symptoms.

In troubled times such as these, the battered economy will affect virtually every sector of society. That's why I believe we must take action to avoid draconian cuts to education programs. If we shortchange our kids now, they won't get a second chance for a better education. And, as the economy wreaks havoc on many children's lives, school offers them stability and a haven. Another reason to prevent cuts to education is purely pragmatic: A strong education system is necessary for a strong economy.

Reports from around the country prove that children already are suffering ill effects from the poor health of the economy.

• A Florida teacher reports that because of the economy, many of her students have difficulty doing homework at night because their electricity has been turned off.

• Another Florida teacher says that budget cuts have led to huge class sizes and the number of students she teaches has jumped from 130 to 192.

• In Philadelphia, where earlier swings of the budget ax already have left many schools without libraries, officials plan to shutter 11 public libraries.

• In Shreveport, La., high school paraprofessionals have been transferred to elementary and middle schools, causing concern about students with disabilities being mainstreamed into regular classrooms as they enter high school, without the services of specially trained education staff.

This is just a sampling of the reports I have seen and heard illustrating the ailments plaguing public schools, including numerous accounts of teachers and school support personnel being laid off, which has resulted in larger class sizes, shorter kindergarten days and other consequences that will impair educational progress. This is harsh medicine, indeed.

The economic crisis must be addressed -- quickly. The AFT today launched a campaign, called "Fight for America's Future: It's Dollars and Sense," to urge policymakers to protect the social investments that make America strong. We will take our message to President-elect Obama and to members of Congress, who are shaping a national economic recovery program at this very moment. And since AFT members are on the frontlines in America's classrooms, we will press the importance of smart investments in statehouses, school board meetings, county councils and anywhere crucial decisions are made about our children's futures.

Smart investments can provide students with class sizes that don't swell to unmanageable levels. Smart investments can ensure that children with special needs have the staff and supports they require. They can allow an intense focus on low-performing schools and a commitment to make every school safe, orderly and up-to-date. And smart investments can guarantee that higher education is accessible and affordable.

In this time of difficult decisions about how to right our listing economic ship, we must take a longer view toward the future well-being of our young people and of the economy. The decisions officials make today must not only protect, but improve, the cornerstones of our society, especially in education and other essential services.

Children today are coming of age in an economy that demands ever-increasing knowledge, skill and adaptability. A rigorous, well-rounded education is vitally important in both good times and bad. If we don't fight for America's future now, our children will feel the ill effects for years to come. I invite you to learn more about our campaign here.

Comments

[Articulator]

09:42 PM on 01/15/2009

The problem may not be all about money but I have to believe that for every kid that ends up unprepared for the working world, the long term cost is much more than the short term savings over that life time. I would be very very careful before cutting school budgets. You can point all the fingers you want and talk about accountabi­lity till you are blue in the face but in the end, the problem will snowball if education is neglected. I also have to believe that things like smaller class sizes have to help which do cost money.

[georgiaR]

04:20 PM on 01/15/2009

I have worked in public education for 20 years and the problems are not all about money. I have worked with some bad teachers that want to leave school at 3pm so they put their students in front of a TV so they can get their paperwork done.
There is not enough time in the day spent on the basics- reading, writing, and math.
There is no connection between curriculum (the district), standards(­the state), and testing (national)­. Makes no sense.
Do kids need to be tested? Of course-how else do we know if they have learned what is required.

[dadumdee]

04:18 PM on 01/15/2009

Our school system sucks and more money is not the answer. I train adults and my ex was a teacher, and it was amazing to see what we must do for adults (flexibili­ty to address personal needs as needed, respect, avoiding direct confrentat­ion, using ice breakers and excercises­, using all learning modalities­) versus whats done to children (formal structure, demeaning interactio­n, abstract learning concepts). We treat adults like kids in training, and we treat kids like soldiers in school. Kids love learning, as long as their not made to feel dumb or alienated and as long as the lesson makes sense. Since current schools are more social than academic institutio­ns, educators need to use that social element to refocus the academic emphasis rather than pretending the social element isn't existant and trying to force the academic experience­. Show me a kid in the drug game and I'll show you a kid that can convert metric and American measuremen­ts. Show me a kid in a gang, and I'll show you a kid that understand­s institutio­nal hierarchy and the importance of a chain of command. I'm not naive and think everyone can be saved, but I'm tired of our paid educators acting like they can't figure out how to educate. A natural teacher can teach something at no expense.

[ruchild]

02:02 PM on 01/15/2009

also: You are the future you seek, it starts with each and everyone of us each and every day, now what do you have to say about fixing things? Make your school boards accountabl­e to EVERYONE, not just those with the $$$ to make the biggest waves, be the squeaky wheel and advocate for those who won't or can't, raise the bar for everyone. And yes, some kids are just not equipped to do well on standardiz­ed tests, big deal, is that how you measure progress, really, by a bunch of bubbles on a sheet, instead of work done, books read and concepts grasped that cannot be translated into bubbles?

[ruchild]

02:02 PM on 01/15/2009

After working in 2 different school districts, here is the problem, the boards and supervisor­s kowtow to everyone, no one is held accountabl­e for anything, from Parents onward, NO ONE. The system is broken, far more than a NCLB can ever fix, it starts at home, with parents taking responsibl­ity for their child's education, from the start, not just the start of school. Broken homes tends to be the blame, but that is not the case, it is broken parents, not broken unions, if the parents have no morals or responsibi­lity, then where do the children learn? These broken parents foist their broken children into a system ill equipped to serve them. As for children with disabiliti­es, these are usually the best equipped because the parents learn to be their advocates early on in life. The bored children, well, the schools teach to the lowest common denominato­r don't they? NCLB just puts both hands behind the back of the educators, who molly coddle parents and keep perpetuati­ng the cycle to stupid is as stupid does in an effort to not anger the parents with the truth about their children, until this cycle is truly broken and not with watered down bs from the government­, it will not change, ever, until the appropriat­e people stand up and take responsibi­lity for our future, ALL OF US, not just those "left behind".

[MagisterLudi]

01:51 PM on 01/15/2009

"Pm 247 posted:" Interactiv­e computer programs can do a better job of imparting knowledge than the traditiona­l classroom teacher, and at a tiny fraction of the cost."

This is a statement without merit. There is no research of any kind to prove this contention­.On the contrary.
BY "imparting the knowledge" I assume you mean absorbing basic informatio­n.
However, this is a small, and lowest part of learning in a hierarchy of knowledge. Perhaps you didn't get beyond that in your schooling :-)
It highly unlikely that a software package can teach skills like: applying abstracted­, principles and ideas, analyzing informatio­n; synthesizi­ng into a coherent new idea. No to mention highly important socializin­g aspect of learning. Consider it.

[LITNUP]

01:34 PM on 01/15/2009

When will the bane of education tenure ( not unions ) be eliminated ? Until we have a system based on merit and review (not test scores ) anything teachers unions say can not be taken with any credibilit­y...

[historymatters]

01:15 PM on 01/15/2009

What always seems to be missing from debates about education, teacher performanc­e, and accountabi­lity, is that schools alone can not be responsibl­e for students' performanc­e. For children to do really well, they need support at home, and they need a popular culture that respects and encourages achievemen­t. Additional­ly, it always seems to create a huge ruckus whenever proposals are made to turn schools more into community centers - offering parenting classes, adult education and literacy classes, school-bas­ed health clinics, job fairs and employment training, etc. - so that all of the factors that influence student performanc­e can begin to be addressed. It is unfair to penalize teachers who can not teach effectivel­y because their students are hungry, cold, or sleep-depr­ived because of unstable home situations­, or they're being abused, or getting bullied on or off school grounds, or having to dodge gangs and bullets in their neighborho­ods. It is unfair to penalize children whose parents who can't cope with economic and/or social crises by offering no means for those problems to be addressed. And it is a crying shame that our popular culture and school funding are so heavily biased toward athletic achievemen­ts instead of intellectu­al achievemen­ts.

[MagisterLudi]

02:24 PM on 01/16/2009

good comment.

[shadowgm]

12:48 PM on 01/15/2009

Think of it in terms of losing weight / healthy living. Eliminatin­g the junk food in your diet isn't enough - it's a combinatio­n of better nutrition, getting more exercise/l­iving a more active lifestyle, and often working with a physician or trainer, as well as the support of family and friends.

In the same manner, if we cut back spending on our schools, we have to figure out a means of sustaining performanc­e and/or providing the same level of service/be­nefits. Cut a music program out of the school budget, and perhaps encourage the symphony or local arts program to hold a series of youth concerts. (And, yes, some of this equation means students looking out for their best interests by becoming active in their schools, pursuing education rather than XBox.)

I am NOT endorsing the mentality where teachers are contributi­ng out of their own salaries to buy supplies. Teachers need to be rewarded for mastery of their subject and performanc­e, but the truth remains that we pay our educators a pittance while failed corporate executives get million-do­llar compensati­on packages -- which are justified as being necessary to attract/re­tain top talent!

[rlugbill]

11:00 AM on 01/15/2009

More money. Everyone wants more money. Me too.

Education isn't just an issue of more money vs. less money though. The problem is that the accountabi­lity goes the wrong way. The accountabi­lity is up instead of down. In other businesses­, they are accountabl­e to the customer. Not in government­-run schools. The accountabi­lity is to the school boards and politician­s.

So, schools feel like they don't have to deliver what the parents want. They just have to keep their bosses happy. Once that changes, schools will change and improve.

[americanideal]

12:23 PM on 01/15/2009

"In other businesses­, they are accountabl­e to the customer..­."

Really?

If the past twenty years have proven anything, it is that left unchecked, private businesses are beholden to many things, but customers are not one of them. In recent "economic boom" periods, we uniformly witnessed erosion in customer service and product quality levels, a generalize­d shift to cheaper and poorer quality materials, a mass exodus of jobs and physical plants to lower cost countries with poorer living standards and less of a commitment to human rights, etc. etc. etc. And while theorists would argue that "all you have to do is stop buying this way", easing of trade agreements and wage stagnation during periods of consumer price inflation literally drove American consumers in the middle to poorer classes to having to accept these realities. In other words, the consumer had NO voice.

I have seen FAR more accessibil­ity and responsive­ness to the public in our local and county school boards than I've EVER seen in a shareholde­r or board meeting in the past twenty years. While I can accept your premise that schools, like every other American institutio­n, need to get back to better execution and higher standards, the old tired argument that government is bad and industry knows best is a completely empty one, and fraudulent­.

Our students and teachers deserve much better from the public than false condemnati­on and stale market-bas­ed rationaliz­ation.

[Aaror]

10:21 AM on 01/15/2009

You know what the school system has not had since I was in school (I started 1st grade in 1980)?
Decent options to maximize performanc­e for the top 10% of students. If a student is sitting there bored while the teacher explains the same concept a 5th time that the student got the first time, that student isn't getting much from school. By high school I was (with teacher permission­) playing video games during my AP calculus class. I was the only one in the class who got college credit on the AP test.
There are deeper problems, what happens when the top 10% think everything is "easy," and then hit a wall, either in college or life? They have no failure coping skills, so they don't know how to deal with it. What happens with the top 10% never reach their potential because they are not allowed to exceed the average students in the class? If someone is capable of learning the entire math curriculum in the first month, shouldn't you give them the next year's curriculum­?
The US is only using the bottom 90% of it's population productivl­y, ask yourself what that does to innovation­, productivi­ty, and knowledge based industries like medicine and biotech?
In Germany and Britian, top students are challenged­, moved to fast track classes, and forced to work harder and prove themselves­. In Japan top students are recruited as teacher assistants­, asked to explain concepts to other students and double the teacher's efficiency­.

[historymatters]

01:10 PM on 01/15/2009

Amen to that! It's a tragedy that so many of the brightest students don't get a chance to live up to their fullest potential. An equally great tragedy is the disdain that our popular culture shows for bright students - they're called nerds, geeks, losers, social outcasts. And worse, so very much worse, is that in many inner-city neighborho­ods, bright students are often accused of "acting white," as if they're betraying themselves and everyone around them by trying to be the best they can. The problems in schools go far beyond the school walls and into our larger culture.

[ProgressiveVoice]

10:37 PM on 01/15/2009

Thank you for your comment! It brought back memories of sophomore English (1975-76), when we spent the first 6 weeks of the year "reviewing­" the parts of a sentence. Having mastered the concept the first time, back in third grade, I spent the period helping the teacher teach and reading all of the "in-class" books we were scheduled to read that year. It was the best English class I ever attended!

[LeonBNJ]

07:11 AM on 01/15/2009

Until we deal with the unstable funding of schools, especially on property taxes in many areas, we will continue to see a struggle to keep our public schools at the quality we need.

[americanideal]

12:34 PM on 01/15/2009

Agreed.

Unpopular, but very true statement LeonBNJ.

Let's face it. Many, many Americans either with no kids, or grown up kids, or other priorities­, simply place more value on the $500K house, backyard pool, Lexus, and summer home. They are sick of paying out "hard earned" money with nothing tangible in return, and they have grown quite fond of the role of consumer in a consumer-d­riven society. I have heard limitless folks with six digit incomes complain loudly about personal property taxes in the past ten years, and yet ironically these very same folks basked in the glow of home value increases at 20% or greater levels for a decade or more, opening up huge leveraged equity opportunit­ies to add that sunroom or finished basement. Or take that week long trip to Italy. It is the 21st century "American Way".

Ronald Reagan taught entire generation­s of us we SHOULD want things. We SHOULD revere those with enormous wealth, and make it our goal. That somehow we are all better not if we provide future generation­s wiht gold star education and uniform healthcare­, but if we become the next multi-mill­ion dollar CEO of a new tech company. Those are our values and goals. To be the ones that "made it" as defined by our bank accounts and possession­s, and not the many who can't.

Not a mystery, but refreshing to see someone on here proclaim the simple truths, even when they make us look ugly. Good on you, Leon.

[PlaceboStudman]

05:59 AM on 01/15/2009

I blame the "no child left behind" program, and its inability to consider social evolution, and the fact that some students are meant to fail, so that those with the greatest potential can succeed to the best of their ability

[shadowgm]

12:53 PM on 01/15/2009

The theory behind NCLB is flawed: test students to establish proficency and determine federal funding levels for schools.

So, if a student performs poorly, where is the problem?
- The student, who is Too Dumb To Get It? (Or are we looking at systemic issues like students from lower income families, with less support at home and a poor diet?)
- The teacher, who Doesn't Know What They're Doing? (And why do we assume the answer is to repeat the lesson, only more slowly and louder?)
- The schools, which Aren't Working?

And is the smart solution, then, cutting funding that does nothing to address any of those issues?

[grateful4thedead]

05:49 AM on 01/15/2009

New Yorker here recalling the John Stossel report about unionized teachers in NY being paid in full after violating, shall we say, social norms. Neverthele­ss, those teachers are supported by the teacher's union and reporting to work every day to an office where they simply sit and do nothing as they are not allowed to be with children.

teachers are great, no question about it. the problem, at least in NY, is the teacher's union.

fortunatel­y, the automatic annual increase in education funding for K-12 in NY is simply going to stop because the populace cannot afford it anymore. time for the entire public school system in NY, INCLUDING the non union bloated bureacracy­, to get its act together.

[Viper]

02:25 AM on 01/15/2009

Our students have had a cold for 40 years... dropping in ranking all the time. Its thus more than dollars... and in recent years its a very, very bad flu. Drop out rates of 50% are not solved by money in the schools as much as money at home and good parents not working two jobs.

Regards

[americanideal]

12:41 PM on 01/15/2009

Correct.

To focus the meat of any solution on the school system itself is to ignore the core of our problems - an unwillingn­ess or lack of concern at home to create a stable family environmen­t, take accountabi­lity as role models for our children, and becoming the thrust behind our childrens' prioritiza­tion to succeed in school.

Who of us at ten years of age had the maturity, wisdom and/or knowledge to chart out our own course, develop a passion for education without context, or avoid the distractio­ns of gangs, video games, pot, alcohol, or any other obstacles laying out there, in the absence of a parent or parents charting the course and showing us the way? Few, if any.

That said, what the author here is advocating is one tool to help bolster those solutions. Where the home simply cannot provide that type of environmen­t, a properly establishe­d and supported school environmen­t can. We owe it to our educators to demand that type of environmen­t for our kids, regardless of where on the home spectrum they fall, and your point and the author's walk hand in hand versus against one another, in my opinion.

[ProgressiveVoice]

10:47 PM on 01/15/2009

Back in the early or mid-90s, I read about a study that looked at all the various research reports published in the previous ? years on education. The study showed that although the area of specific study, the school board/educ­ator ideology, income levels and neighborho­ods of students' families may all have an effect, positive or negative, every study indicated that parental involvemen­t in children's education had a positive, long term effect.

Someone needs to be researchin­g how we involve parents not currently taking an interest in their child's education. As a society, we need to expand the idea and recognize that all adults need to be involved in the education of our students.