Texas’ largest school systems are laying off teachers by the hundreds and thousands while hanging on to the tens of millions of dollars in their “rainy day” and reserve funds -- and some in those communities, including some teachers, say that’s a bad idea.
The Houston public schools, the state’s largest school system, has laid off more than 700 teachers to solve its budget crunch while having $279 million in reserves. The Dallas schools are considering laying off more than 1,110 employees and expect to have $85 million to $95 million in reserves at the end of the fiscal year. And the San Antonio public schools have more than $63 million in reserves, though they have found other jobs for teachers who faced threats of layoffs.
None of the three systems currently plans to dip into those bank accounts to save teachers' jobs, though their budget proposals for the next fiscal year are in varying states of flux.
“I think they should be using the rainy day fund,” said teacher Susan Wingfield, who will be laid off at the end of this school year after 11 years in the Houston schools, the last seven teaching art at Lamar High. “We need to educate these students … We need to spend money on teachers' salaries to do that instead of laying them off.”
The Austin and Amarillo public school systems both plan to use some of their reserves to plug their budget holes and prevent or reduce layoffs, spokesmen for those districts said. The Austin schools have $165 million in reserve and plan to use $43 million of it, while the Amarillo schools don't yet know how much of their $55 million in reserves they will spend.
But school officials in some districts say they need to keep their rainy day funds for an even rainier day than today. And some say the state should spend its rainy day money first, before school districts dip into their own reserves.
Read the entire story here: http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2011/05/texas-school-systems-hold-on-to-rainy-day-funds-teacher-layoffs/1305032157.story
None of the three systems currently plans to dip into those bank accounts to save teachers' jobs, though their budget proposals for the next fiscal year are in varying states of flux.
“I think they should be using the rainy day fund,” said teacher Susan Wingfield, who will be laid off at the end of this school year after 11 years in the Houston schools, the last seven teaching art at Lamar High. “We need to educate these students … We need to spend money on teachers' salaries to do that instead of laying them off.”
The Austin and Amarillo public school systems both plan to use some of their reserves to plug their budget holes and prevent or reduce layoffs, spokesmen for those districts said. The Austin schools have $165 million in reserve and plan to use $43 million of it, while the Amarillo schools don't yet know how much of their $55 million in reserves they will spend.
But school officials in some districts say they need to keep their rainy day funds for an even rainier day than today. And some say the state should spend its rainy day money first, before school districts dip into their own reserves.
Read the entire story here: http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2011/05/texas-school-systems-hold-on-to-rainy-day-funds-teacher-layoffs/1305032157.story
No comments:
Post a Comment