I knew this was coming. I’ve been expecting to hear this sort of news since Sandoval was elected in November, but reading this in the Las Vegas Review-Journal today was still a sucker punch. The school district released their recommendations to the school board on how to close our massive budget gap.
Since the school district budget must be set before the state finalizes exactly how little money will come from the state (and I've never seen our per pupil funding be above 49th), the district seems to me to be preparing for the worst. Estimates at how much will be cut from my district range from $200 million to 400 million dollars. Unfortunately the 200 million dollar number comes from money the district has set aside to pay bond loans to use in their general funds, a move the district doesn't think they can afford at all to make. One that Sandoval thinks is perfectly fine.
According to the Review Journal ( http://www.lvrj.com/... ), class sizes would increase while teacher pay would be cut to save the district more than $400 million dollars.
They also plan to cut literacy specialists and education computer strategists.
Nearly 2,500 staffing positions, including computer support personnel for schools, literacy specialists and support staff, would be eliminated to compensate for declining revenues, according to the latest district analysis released Thursday.
How can this be in the best interest of the students? My literacy specialist has been a godsend this year. She has provided an extra dose of reading instruction to my most struggling students. All of these students have made at least a year's growth in reading skill so far this year. Her position? Apparently not necessary.
Class sizes will go up.
The increase in class sizes would allow the district to cut 1,638 teaching positions.
The district plans to increases classes sizes by three students in grades 1-3, by five students in grades 4-5 and by seven students in grades 6-12, if necessary.
If we were starting with reasonable class sizes, this might not be a major problem, but as a fourth grade teacher I already have 34 students. How am I realistically supposed to teach nearly 40 ten year-olds? Let alone provide remediation for struggling students, especially since I won't have any support from a literacy specialist anymore? High school classes often have 40+ students already in Las Vegas. Seven more should be no problem, right? Especially in laboratory sciences...
I'd like to hope these were scare tactics meant to point out the need for other solutions than cutting education. Maybe that will let me sleep tonight. But Sandoval has remained firm that he will not increase taxes or any government fees. This includes simply continuing taxes passed in 2009 that are set to sunset. While we have Democratic control of both the state house and senate, it's not a strong enough majority anymore to overturn a veto.
So I'm waiting, to find out if we can convince our fellow Nevadans that education does matter. That while throwing money at education might not be a solution, adequately funding it would be a nice idea that Nevada hasn't tried since, well, possibly ever.
I hope we will see more protests in Nevada, but the reality is, we have no actual union. Teachers are forbidden by state law to strike. All this really riles me up, not just for me as a teacher considering whether I'd still be able to pay my mortgage (after already being laid off from a part time job), but for the students. Because in the end? They're the ones who will suffer. They're the ones who will miss out on getting the very best education we could give them. I just wish Nevada seemed to care about that.