Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Spending Cuts in Education

By: Mona C. 

As the economy continues to struggle and we travel ever closer to the dreaded fiscal cliff, budget cuts have swept their way across the country, especially in school funding. Thirty seven of our fifty states have decreased spending on education over the last five years, mostly due to the recent recession. Wisconsin, for example, has decreased spending per student nearly 14% since 2008. These budget cuts force schools to limit the opportunities they offer, raise the prices of public education, and decrease the quality of education schools can offer.
In an effort to save money and keep educating their students, school get rid of various programs, including cutting art programs and other electives, making school years shorter, and firing teachers and guidance counselors. However, these decisions – while necessary – have high opportunity costs for both teachers and students. As more and more educators are laid off, unemployment rises and a large contingency of workers are left without jobs or opportunities to get new ones. Open positions are filled quickly and highly educated teachers are left without any possibilities in their chosen field. On top of this, with fewer teachers come larger class sizes and less one-on-one attention. This leads to lower grades, lower test scores, and less college readiness skills. When these students graduate, they won’t be prepared for success, and a generation of unskilled and uneducated workers may well arise.

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1 comment:

  1. I feel that no matter how much school officials would need to lay off teachers or cut classes, the opportunity cost is much too high. Like you mentioned, schools looking to cut costs and remove classes or extra curricular activities are also removing the chance of a lifetime from a student. I can expect that in the future, schools could be limited to just the basics due to the lack of money going into public and private education. Mathematics, sciences, and English courses will create the school day. This will create no uneducated workers, but I believe uninspired workers that don't know they're interests. Creating an unhappy America.

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