Local districts brace for massive state cuts in special programs
Some suburban school districts said they can weather massive state aid cuts OK, but others were bracing Tuesday for what one administrator called "a double whammy" as the state board of education approved a $100 million reduction in spending.
The Illinois Board of Education budget eliminates funding for after-school and gifted programs and cuts money for early childhood, reading and foreign language instruction by as much as half.
Combined with problems dealing the weak economy, the cuts will force districts like Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 to struggle to pay for programs, said Arlen Gould, a District 21 board member.
"It's a double whammy," he said. "It's going to be amazingly difficult given the state of the economy."
Like most school districts, about 80 percent of District 21's budget pays for employee salary and benefits. If state cuts keep coming, that group will be affected, Gould said.
"One thing that is not an option is a tax referendum," he said. "In my opinion, we couldn't think about proposing a referendum anytime in the next three or four years."
Further west, Community Unit District 300 foresees the specter of even deeper cuts in programs and personnel than have already been made.
The school board has laid off teachers and will vote next week on cutting bus aides for the deLacey Family Education Center, a school for at-risk preschoolers in Carpentersville. The state cuts to early education could force the district to make further reductions to keep the deLacey program while maintaining a balanced budget.
"That is going to have a significant impact on our budget for the 2009-10 year," District 300 Superintendent Ken Arndt said. "Our present board does not want to run a deficit."
Because of the nature of the state-aid funding formula, many districts in communities like Palatine, Barrington, Naperville, Lincolnshire and others say they are more able to adapt because they don't get that much money from the state to begin with.
Even with the cuts in spending for the gifted, St. Charles Unit District 303, for example, will pioneer a new program in the fall and said the state's reductions won't affect its initiation, though it expects to see some impact in preschool programs.
"I think all of us expected that there were cuts that were going to be made, we just weren't sure where," Superintendent Don Schlomann said. "The shame is all of these cuts are made after we've committed to contracts with other people. To be honest, without the federal stimulus money that's come in, we'd be a lot worse off."
But even some relatively strong districts are concerned.
Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 President Karen Strykowski said responding to the action would be a stretch. District 54 staff estimated that the decision would cut between $1 million and $1.4 million from the coming year's budget, and particularly affect reading improvement, early childhood and bilingual programs.
Because the district can no longer reverse its decision to add staff in these areas for the year ahead, the cuts will have to be made in other areas, Strykowski said.
"It's going to impact us significantly," Strykowski said.
Jose Torres, superintendent of Elgin Area Unit District 46, faced a similar problem.
U-46 staffed its early childhood programs for this fall more than six months ago, "presuming the state would honor its commitment to those programs," Torres said. The new budget, however, drastically cuts funding to the programs.
Illinois State Board of Education Chairman Jesse Ruiz said Gov. Pat Quinn and lawmakers had given the board no choice but to make the cuts. The state board approved an overall education budget of nearly $7.3 billion for fiscal 2010, a 2 percent decrease from the $7.4 billion allocated the year before.
And while this year appears to be rough, Ruiz said, next year could be "catastrophic." He urged people to demand answers from politicians soon headed to the campaign trail.
"We need to become very, very, very discriminating in our public officials," Ruiz said. "Keep your dollars in your pocket. Give it to a school before you give it to a candidate."
Education board members also voted Tuesday to severely reduce funding for arts, agricultural education, advanced placement classes, bilingual studies and teacher certification programs. Money for the rehabilitation of truant students and the visually impaired also was slashed.
Advocates who testified at the meeting warned of consequences as dire as more children on the streets. Officials agreed that, at the least, the cuts could hurt the quality and competitiveness of education in the state.
Of the overall education budget, the legislature set general state aid - money allocated to school districts - at more than $4.7 billion for fiscal 2010, up 2.5 percent, or nearly $117 million, from the previous year. That amounts to about $160 more per pupil for the year.