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Greensville County School Superintendent Philip Worrell displays an example of a report that's a state mandate. |
RICHMOND--
School superintendents across Virginia are considering laying off teachers, increasing class sizes and cutting programs to cope with state budget cuts that they called "potentially devastating."In a news conference in Richmond, members of the Virginia School Superintendents Association said proposed cuts in state funding threaten students' success, and implored lawmakers to consider ways to mitigate the impact of cuts on schools.
"We will reach a point where we will not have the staff to do the job we have been given effectively," said Milton Liverman, president of the superintendents' group and superintendent of Suffolk County schools. "Most of us have already reduced everything that does not have a significant impact on the classroom. We ask that budget decision-makers not make their decisions based on presupposed notions about school operations or a one-size-fits-all solution."
The 2011-2012 budget that the former Democratic governor, Tim Kaine, proposed before leaving office last week contains about $2 billion in budget cuts across agencies.
For schools, part of the proposed reductions--more than $750 million--is a cap on the number of support staff that the state will pay for, a permanent change that school officials oppose. They want to wait for a study of the staffing-ratio issue to be completed, and said current staffing standards are already too low.
If Republicans reject, as they have said they will, tax increases that Kaine also proposed, then budget cuts, including those to public education, could double.
About half of the state's school districts have responded to a survey about how they plan to deal with proposed budget cuts.
Almost all that responded said they're considering cutting staff.
Nearly half would cut salaries, and at least 46 percent would eliminate or reduce some incentive programs, such as remedial summer school or programs for 4-year-olds or at-risk students.
The superintendents also said that schools are already strained under a pile of state and federal mandates, standards and bureaucracy. They want the state to postpone several new mandates--such as new requirements for testing, new finance and economic class requirements, and SOL revisions--until revenues improve.
"These new mandates will significantly increase teacher workloads at a time when superintendents are seriously considering cutting staff, increasing class sizes and reducing salaries in order to balance school division budgets," said Greensville County Superintendent Phil Worrell, who displayed a thick stack of data reports schools are required to track and compile.
Worrell said clerical staff are likely to be laid off, making it even more difficult to keep up with all the data reports schools must create.
"Expecting school divisions to meet new mandates at a time when resources are being reduced is not realistic," he added. "Implementing these mandates at this time will have a serious negative impact on morale, which can only negatively affect student performance."
Fredericksburg School Superintendent David Melton, who attended the press conference, said mandates can be particularly burdensome for smaller school divisions like Fredericksburg, which has around 2,800 students, since they fall on a much smaller staff.
Washington County school superintendent Alan Lee took aim at federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, calling it a "haven for bloated bureaucratic practices" that stifle creativity and frustrate parents. He said that Virginia schools are forced to try to meet a standard that isn't the same nationwide, and that accountability standards are best left to state and local school authorities.
Lee also said superintendents oppose new laws meant to expand charter schools, something new Gov. Bob McDonnell strongly supports.
Lee said people think the charter school model creates improvement because it encourages creativity and flexibility and eliminates federal and state regulations and mandates.
"If government and the public want schools with those characteristics, then school boards, superintendents, principals and teachers in our public schools are not the barrier to this occurring," Lee said. "It is government that has created the laws and regulations that now hamstring our schools."
Liverman urged superintendents to be available to talk to legislators about schools' funding issues.
"Make them understand, they're not going to get the same product we've always been able to produce," he said.
The superintendents' association has no position on an issue bothering some school divisions--a proposed delay in changing the funding formula that dictates how much money the state gives local school divisions.
The formula, called the local composite index, is the reason that Fredericksburg taxpayers are responsible for close to 80 percent of its schools' costs, while Spotsylvania and Stafford taxpayers are only responsible for around 37 percent.
Former Gov. Kaine proposed delaying the implementation of this change until 2012 to save money. That will hurt some school divisions, including Fredericksburg.
The formula is adjusted every two years, and this year, Fredericksburg would have benefited to the tune of around $100,000 to $150,000, but Kaine ordered the formula frozen for two years.
Fredericksburg has asked the General Assembly to implement the changes this year, but Melton acknowledged that many other communities stand to benefit from the freeze.
Spotsylvania and Stafford both saw slight drops in their composite index, and would also benefit from the formula change.
--Staff reporter Emily Battle contributed to this report.
Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com
