Can schools pay their bills with more flexibility?

If we are going to get serious about education and competing with nations that are leaving us in the dust, and do it with less money, at what point do we talk about eliminating all sports programs from k-12? I have no numbers about what these cost, but at this point every non-essential-to-education program must be up for elimination. If we keep doing things just because that’s how we always have, we will fail to keep up with a changing world.

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Can the school systems sue the state for failing to provide QBE funds?

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Eliminate senior exemptions on property taxes. Property does not have a differenct age by property.

Extend sales taxes to internet purchases which are technically subject to USE tax. Make it simple.

End the Robin Hood method of state funds to public systems. Give every child in GA the same amount fo funds and we can eliminate the school ssytems that cannot pay for themselves.

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Just because a student can make a “nice” score on a standardized test does not mean that he/she is educated. We are charged with educating all students, and this means that every child no matter what his/her talent area needs instruction to develop this talent. We also need to prepare many to be ready to join the workforce as soon as they graduate, therefore, many technical offerings need to exist. We should be getting these students ready for life no matter which direction they may take, and concentrating on a few courses to pass a standardized does not prepare students for the workforce or to continue on to higher education.

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Atlanta Public Schools solved this problem with segregation of Atlanta’s Northside Hispanic population.
Most of them won’t complain…as they are lucky to have made it over the boarder alive. Segregation on at the Northside APS schools. An idea created and implemented by the minority leadership in APS.
Figure this out…
Concealing Segregation/APS/Jackson Elementary
http://www.youtube.com/user/TopSchoolAtlanta and

Blatant Discrimination/Jackson/APS Leadership
http://www.youtube.com/user/TopSchoolAtlanta#p/u/7/0tCFMSuQBTQ

http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com

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Speech, occupational, physical therapy and nursing services are federally mandated health related education services for students with disabilities to attend school per the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. These are not luxury services and are non-negotiable for school districts.

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What a question!

Let’s see…. without flexibility (which is what Deal assumes we had before him), the people in charge of school systems in GA awarded themselves pay raises and bonuses and cars and conferences and etc. All the while, teachers were furloughed, class sizes increased, teachers pay were frozen, etc.

With more flexibility, somehow money will be saved? Somehow the people in charge of school systems will make better decisions?

Wow! Is there any end to the stupidity of the republicans in Georgia?

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Hey, Student Advocate,
When we are spending upwards to 36k on an individual student while the majority of students’ funding is being cut to the bone, then we have to make some tough choices. The feds mandate a heck of a lot more than they subsidize, so we are in a bit of a conundrum, aren’t we?
Occupational therapissts can be given a bigger case load. Physical therapists can be given a bigger case load. Nursing services are NOT federally mandated, either.

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85% of your taxpayers funds go to the funding of salaries in our schools then we want to complain about our children not getting an education. The problem is you can not get an education only within the confines of a building and classroom it takes the parents participation at home. Cut the sports and other extra curricular activities for one or two years to see what results you get from your students. If those parents want them so much let them pay for them or have local business sponsor them. As for the senior citzens remember they have already done their part by providing you with a place for your education not it is your turn to do it for your children. The free rides are over take a deep breath folks it is going to be a long one.

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Sorry, no sympathy here. For years, many of us on this blog have been questioning our school system expenditures. Bloated Central Office staffs, $80/90/100k + salaries for folks that have no basis in market realities.

Interesting that the topic of athletics was brought up. Just this week, my hometown newspaper included a story of how our local BOE was touring the facilities in anticipation of spending SPLOST dollars. One recurring theme was upgrades to athletic facilities.

You’re furloughing teachers but going to build a new field house. Really??

It’s always interesting to peruse salaries: http://www.open.georgia.gov/

A few nuggets:

ESOL $110 million. There is a cost to having 20-30 million ILLEGAL aliens waltzing across our borders. Add another $10 million for INTERPRETERS to that figure.

In-School Suspension teachers – $21.6 million. For a glorified study hall monitor? High was $97k for one individual.

APS – Business Services Secretary / Clerk $92k + $16k reimbursement. For a SECRETARY????

APS – Public Relations $740k

APS – Security Officer, two made over $100k

Cobb – 26 Fin/Bus Svc Mgr at a total cost of $1.8 million.

You could spend all day on that site and find enough waste equal to the Gross National Product of some countries.

When they start handing out pink slips to head coaches, then I might say they are serious about cutting expenditures. Until then…..

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Public education should focus on providing the “basic” education to all students – including academics, arts, physical education. Anything beyond the “basic,” – including extracurricular activities AND advance courses beyond the “basic” – should be fee-based. Parents of athletes, bands, etc. already pay some to have their kids participate in those programs. I think parents whose children are enrolled in AP courses should also pay fees.

Speaking of extra curricular activities, I would support making those more of community activities – much like what you see in Europe. Let schools lease their facility to those community programs. Basically extend Little Leagues etc. to HS age groups, too.

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“Let schools lease their facility to those community programs”

Great idea. And if removing the sports programs from the schools discourages participation, that is all to the good; perhaps more time would be spent on academics.

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Meanwhile, according to Georgia Public Radio, state revenues have been up for the past few months. But still more cuts to education?

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“I may be misinformed but most sports programs support themselves.home varsity game will easily rake in $5-6,000/per game.”

You do realize that the amount you cited would not support even coaches salaries? Yeah, I know some coaches would remain as teachers, but not all. Plus you are not considering facility maintenance costs, utilities, referees, gas for bus trips, etc.
You are also not counting things like facility maintenance cost,

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blackbird13

December 9th, 2010
9:42 am
If we are going to get serious about education and competing with nations that are leaving us in the dust, and do it with less money, at what point do we talk about eliminating all sports programs from k-12? I have no numbers about what these cost, but at this point every non-essential-to-education program must be up for elimination. If we keep doing things just because that’s how we always have, we will fail to keep up with a changing world.

@blackbird13…..I think you need to do a little more research into sports expenditures at public schools…..the last time I heard, Ad Valorem TAXES collected from property owners for school systems cannot be used to fund extracurricular activities such as a football program……these have to be self-supporting…..this is why most high schools have booster clubs. Revenues derived from attendance is used to pay for uniforms, officials, field maintenance, etc. I say this to you and “Catlady”…..”this is not a very well thought out solution”

You know, right now our state has a budget deficit…..we’ve got to make it up someway or the other. I say we’ve got to cut expenditures across the board or raise taxes to get back in balance. School Systems are gonna have to cut out the fat…..all of ‘em have it, there’s just some tough choices to make and some don’t want to make ‘em.

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In DEKALB County we could get rid of our TV show on cable, the people who run it and over half the Central office. When I was in school, we had two principals – not four at each high school. Eliminate bus service since we live in areas where kids can walk or ride bikes – much healthier, car pool or take MARTA if Mommy and Daddy can’t take them. Do we need so many security guards? Our local one has 2-3 guards riding around in golf carts. Have teachers who teach and get rid of the admin staff. No PR and Communications needed. Let each school run their own IT and get rid of area coordinators. Get rid of all coordinators – just let the teachers at the schools run their classrooms rather than all the extra layer of people paid high salaries just to shuffle paper and demand more paper from teachers. Without the micro managing, teachers can teach.

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So what is the answer? To stop cuts in education we cut or eliminate other state agencies? Which ones? Do that and the unemployment rate increases even more. Do we eliminate tax breaks for companies in Georgia? Do that and they go to other states, and again unemployment increases. Do you raise taxes on thoses of us that still have jobs? We are struggling to pay our bills now, increased costs for gas, groceries, utilities, etc. The property owner and worker winds up footing the bills for all of this. As a side note, my school system says it has cut positions in the central office, and eliminated teacher positions through attrition. I have walked through a couple of the schools in our district, as well as the central office. I have yet to see a single vacant classroom or office. I think that the central offices are protecting their own at the expense of the classrom teacher.

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Oops.. forgot the link in previous post:
http://www.georgiatrend.com/features-sports-leisure/friday-night-faithful.shtml

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Football is not a subject. Cut the sports.

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Cutting sports overall really doesn’t save big money. The reason is that because for the most part, sports are self-sustaining…. they can generate enough revenue to pay for themselves.

What does cost big money that is not self-sustaining?

Foreign language departments – some of these departments are larger than the math departments in high school. Few colleges have a foreign language requirement any more. Is it good to know another language? Of course. But if something were to be cut, then I vote for this.

Music and theater departments – some of these departments require a lot of money…. for stages, materials, teachers, instruments, etc. Is it good to offer these? Of course. But if something were to be cut, then I vote for this.

Special education services – most all of these departments are the largest in all of high schools. I know that the law has certain requirements, but if the State budget is really that tight then maybe these laws should be changed. If something were to be cut, I vote for this.

Physical education – these facilities cost a lot to build and a lot to maintain. Even though our children are obese, if their parents don’t care, why should the public fund PE? I vote to cut this.

What should certainly NOT be cut? The basics such as math, English, science, and social studies. These are the 4 legs of the education stool. These should NEVER be touched until all else is totally cut out first.

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@Dekalb educated- yep kids needs to walk on those newly installed sidewalks that Vernon Jones paid for with SPLOst funds. I see buses with 15-25 kids leaving the building. Buses need to be filled to capacity for better ROI. There have always been 3-4 APs in DeKalb schools ( I graduated in the 80s). Now what I don’t agree with is the AP of instruction, AP for Test administration, AP for each grade academy,etc. Since so many APs and Principals are always giving homage to the teaching staff they should be glad to get back in the classroom with all of the stellar knowledge they have received from on high. As contracts are annually, this is the year to give those APs a contract back into the classroom. The TV station could be privatized as I can not see much of what they do for the salaries.

School systems do need to review what is paid by the state and federal govt’, which are mandated services, and see where we can trim.

@Catlady- your attitude toward Special Needs students is the reason why there are so many mandates and lawsuits. But you are not alone; a DCSS BOE member says just the same (paraphrasing here: DCSS will never be good again because of special needs students). These attitudes of indifference toward those who are not like you will always be cause for policies on funding formulas, and who gets what. If it was not mandated that 1% of Title I funds be for parent involvement activities, that money would be spent on ribeye dinners for teacher appreciation (as was in the past).
And Parents are ultimately responsible for the education of the student, not the teacher. So how about we shut down public schools, make this a Homeschooling STATE, allowing teachers to practice their wares as tutor?

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“3) Have teachers pay out of pocket expenses for having a substitute. Talk about motivation to come to work every day!”

Really??? So when my child was hospitalized last year, I should have dumped him off at the hospital and gone to work? What about funerals for parents/grandparents? Unfortunately I’ve already had the flu this year. Should I have come in to work during that time?

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@ HS Public Teacher. I’m a teacher, and I know for a fact in my county teachers are grandfathered in to get paid according to the highest degree earned, regardless of current position. Many systems do this (I’ve work in three, and all three are doing it).

@ teach&mom. Just throwing out options. Do you honestly think any BOE will vote to cut athletics?

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“Do you honestly think any BOE will vote to cut athletics?”

Nope. But it needs to be pointed out, no matter how futile it is, that the priorities of our education system are completely out of whack, regardless of budgetary concerns.

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Maybe it’s time for the Gov. to propose a temporary state sales tax hike. When most systems have already cut to the bone, you’ve got to look at the revenue side of the equation. I don’t think any additional burden should be put squarely on property owners, especially in the poorer regions of the state.

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No, teachers should not have to pay for substitutes when they’re sick, but what about those who regularly use sick leave to take personal time. Our principal and several teachers have young children, and every time there is a class party or play at their child’s school, thesse people have to take time out to attend. One teacher went on a church shopping trip to New York for two days last week, and I can promise you that at least 2-3 teachers will take a day off for Christmas shopping. Should we really be paying subs for this? I was out with the crud for a couple of days earlier in the year and had to shut down the library. No sub for me. For those of you wondering where the cuts will come next. I’m pretty sure it will be librarians.

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@Teacher&Mom… Your numbers on sports programs being self-supporting don’t add up. You say you can gross $5,000 per varsity game. Let’s say your school plays 7 home games, or even 10 if you are in playoffs, so that’s $35,000 to $50,000, which pays for field and team equipment, field maintenance and utilities, concession licenses and health inspection, salaries for the head coach, assistant coaches, expendables like trainers supplies, chalk, stat sheets, etc., referee fees, summer and spring training, football team’s share of weight room facilities cost, and public safety (off duty police for crowd control).”

OK…you’re talking to someone who doesn’t work in a 4A system so we don’t have concession licenses, etc. More like a 2A system on the verge of becoming a single A system.

The local churches and businesses pitch in and work the concession stands…all organized by the booster clubs. Uniforms, training equipment, etc…provided by the booster clubs.

Once a year the local doctors volunteer to complete all physicals after school. (not sure if this is what your reference to “health inspections” is referring to??)

We have 1 PE teacher at the elementary, 2 at the middle school, and 4 at the high school (based on numbers, we are paying for 2 PE teachers at the high school out of local funds). Supplements are very reasonable. Our baseball, softball, soccer, tennis, swimming, and wrestling programs are all coached by classroom teachers. We also utilize community coaches to fill in the gaps.

The $$ amount I gave was for basketball games. I’ve never kept the gate at a high school football game but a fellow teacher once told me that he collected over $10,000 one night at the “home” side gate. He estimated the game pulled in around $15 grand.

My point??? Cutting these positions will do very little to help our rural system save money. It also detracts from finding meaningful ways to fund education. Please remember that many systems in GA are located in rural areas. We don’t have the tax base to fund lots of “bells and whistles.” We also rely heavily on our community and local businesses to fund many “extras” at our school. We are strapped and while APS, Gwinnett, Cobb, Fulton, and others may be able to absorb more budget cuts, we have absorbed to the point of closing school a week early.

How many more days of instruction do we need to lose before someone decides enough is enough? I think it is time to expect our legislators and governor to get creative and come up with viable solutions. Hold their feet to the fire on this one.

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@teacher&mom…Your numbers are still way off. It doesn’t cost less to maintain facilities in a small school than in a big one – the football field and basketball courts are still the same size. Teachers paid extra as sports coaches are not “free” – that money is not coming from gate receipts and if you don’t have a booster club, it is coming straight out of county salary funds. Are all the materials and equipment (balls, uniforms, goals, trainers gear) donated? Do the referees donate their time? Is the bus drivers’ time and gas money donated or paid for by gate receipts? The health inspections are MANDATORY for any fixed location that sell food in Georgia (that is, your concession stand). How are all the nonrevenue sports funded? Swimming pools are not costless, nor does an outdoor track never require maintenance.

But still, your point is well taken. It is time to stop cutting instructional funds. I think the beef some of us have with your defense of sports programs is: a) they are nonessential for academic performance and b) if districts budgets are to continue shrinking, then nonessential activities should go first. Personally, I would rather take even $5,000 saved from a sports program and buy classroom technology, toner for the school’s printer, magazine subscriptions for the library, glassware for the chemistry lab, or dry-erase markers for the poor teacher who had to fund that out of his/her own pocket. Only in the US do schools have the fanatical devotion to sports teams from 6th grade up. If the programs are as cheap to run as you say and are self-supporting, then let the city or county government run them as traveling sports teams and get the schools out of the sports business.

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“Eliminate senior exemptions on property taxes.”
Amen! Sooner the better!

“In DEKALB County we could get rid of our TV show on cable, the people who run it and over half the Central office.”
I think they should keep PDS24 but only show the current BOE meeting on a loop and cut everything else. I agree the Central Office is too big.

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I saved up my sick days because I would need them one day. And I did. Teachers don’t get paid maternity leave. We get 8 weeks that comes out of our sick leave. So I took 16 weeks of sick leave, eight weeks for each of my kids. Thank goodness I saved for it.
Batgirl, you are not responsible for the library being closed when you are sick. The school should have a sub for you. The kids are being punished because the county is cutting days, and the powers that be know that you will come to school rather than punish the students.

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@blackbird13, catlady, etc. – Before you start talking about cutting athletics and other extracurriculars, you should realize that many school districts provide little or no funding for athletics. For example, all athletics in Cobb County are essentially student funded. For the sport in which my students are involved, the county provides a whopping $2600 coaching supplement per year. The athletes and their parents pay for field preparation and maintenance (incuding replacing sod; mowing grass; painting the lines on the field; and maintaining the speaker system, concession stands, and scoreboards at the stadium, for example); purchasing and maintaining uniforms and equipment; travel to other schools for games; paying the referees; paying for substitute teachers if the coach misses a class for coaches’ training or games; and paying for insurance that protects the county and school if a player is injured at a game. The coaching supplement is a miniscule portion of the budget, and in return, the school gets fields that are also used for PE maintained by the teams. The school and county also get to count all the money the team and its boosters spend on the sport when reporting female athletic opportunities for Title IX purposes. And before you say, “Cut the coaches’ teaching positions,” you should realize that PE and health are required subjects and that many coaches teach hard academic subjects, including AP classes.

@HS Math Teacher – Most systems haven’t cut to the bone. Very few made central office cuts.

@Sorry, Wrong Answer – You’re leaving out the participation fees the student athlete pay, and grossly overestimating the expenses, considering they are shared among several teams. Remember, football, soccer, track and field, lacrosse, etc., all use the same stadium. All those teams plus basketball, volleyball, softball, baseball, etc., use the same weight room. And PE classes also use both.

Finally, there is abundant evidence that student involved in extracurricular activities, including student athletes, outperform other students in terms of grades, graduation rates, and college participation.

The cuts need to be made first at the bloated central offices and support staff that are not teaching positions – truckloads of assistant superintendents, program managers, financial managers, etc., along with high priced pet projects and inefficient programs. School systems are notoriously inefficient in spending our money. Second should be all ESOL expenses. Next in line should be excessive numbers of assistant principals/administrators, graduation coaches, student support services, etc. This would include medical care for special ed students, which is enormously expensive. Fourth would be things like arts and PE classes, with the last thing to be cut hard academics.

Other state agencies have endured budget cuts of as much as 45% over the past few years. These include some charged with public safety. Compared to that, the schools haven’t been touched. There is still enormous fat in school budgets, but it’s controlled by those making the decisions to cut teachers instead of cutting their turf.

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So many people have no clue how things work and yet have such rock-hard opinions….

I teach science. I am also a coach. My ‘extra’ pay from the County is all of $2000 per year – hardly enough to save anything or anyone.

Cutting sports does NOTHING real for the budget. You idiots that continue beating this drum need to STOP until you get the facts.

Sports brings more money in than it cost. Can you at least understand that?

The parents of the players contribute money. There are fund raisers. There is a boster club. There are ticket sales. There are concession sales. Corporations will sponsor.

Again, cutting sports will save NOTHING for the budget of the school of the school system.

Get over it.

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The real reason we should eliminate athletics from schools is the completely useless coaches that get hired as “teachers”. I’m sure every high school teacher who reads this blog has had an experience working with a special education team teacher who spends his entire day sitting in the back of the room sketching plays in his notebook — that is when he shows up to class. While eliminating athletics may help us with some budget concerns, it would help raise achievement by getting coaches out of and teachers into the classroom.

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@blackbird – The facts show that sports are emphatically NOT a waste of time and money. Sports participation improves attendance, grades, test scores, graduation rates, and college attendance. Look at Dwyer, Sallis, Blizzard, Lazarus, & Dean (2001); Dwyer et al. (1983); Linder (1999); Linder (2002); Shephard (1997); Tremblay et al. (2000); JacAngelo (2003); Din (2005); and others.

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@blackbird – “Where does that money come from and regardless of where it comes from why should it go to anything other than education, not playtime?”

Because if the money doesn’t come from public coffers, you don’t get to dictate how private funds are spent. Just because you don’t like sports doesn’t mean they should be removed from schools when sports’ benefit on education is a fact.

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@FCS teacher
“While eliminating athletics may help us with some budget concerns, it would help raise achievement by getting coaches out of and teachers into the classroom.”

Absolutely. And if you look into the numbers, you will find that head football coaches are often the highest paid “instructor” in the school. What a joke. I have, in my 20 years of experience have known two head coaches who were not p.e. teachers (glorified babysitters). People are so sold on this nonsensical idea that sports have to be a part of education that they will justify it anyway they can.

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Some points: In the high school where I worked the best geometry (not in GA) teacher is the football coach. He does a wonderful job and parents want him. He also gets the “bad boys” because he can “handle” them.
Music enhances everyone’s education. Small children actually learn through songs as do special education students.
Art is a way all children can express themselves. It also enhances social studies and science education.
Cutting 20-50% of of the central office budget would actually help. We might need coordinators, but they could live without a secretary. Cut one AP at high schools. Small schools could share AP personnel. The state could slim down documentation. We could cut some testing…at some grades.
We need to think outside the box. The state is out of money. The main job of the state is provide security for the public and educate the children. Neither of this is being done very well. Now me have to stop spending money.

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blackbird13

December 9th, 2010
12:28 pm
“Cutting sports overall really doesn’t save big money. The reason is that because for the most part, sports are self-sustaining…. they can generate enough revenue to pay for themselves.”

But if jobs have to go, the jobs related to them should be the first to go. Most coaches teach p.e., which, again, if cuts have to be made, should also be the first to go. In fact, those cuts should have been made already

@blackbird13 – It’s quite obvious you and “catlady” are not big high school sports fans. Do you know what motivates a lot of kids to attend high school?…..yep, athletics…..you take away this and the dropout rate in Georgia High Schools would be through the roof. You might not like it, but high school athletics do tons more good things than bad things……bad idea, boys and girls.

If you really, really want to balance the school budgets here in Georgia, there is a sure fire way to do it and I actually threw out this suggestion earlier this year (I got crucified for it, but that’s OK, I don’t mind)……Either do away with the school busing systems or charge parents for the actual costs…..presto, the budget is balanced overnight……any takers??????

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“Either do away with the school busing systems or charge parents for the actual costs…..presto, the budget is balanced overnight……any takers??????”

Numbers for that? School bus drivers make next to nothing. A lot of kids would simply not make it to school. I support cutting extracurricular bus use, but what you are suggesting makes no sense if the goal is for students to get to school. Plus, you would create an even worse traffic problem than we already have. How about charging everyone for parking, staff included? My wife and I have to pay for parking where we work, why not teachers and students? And I don’t mean some nominal amount. And if there have to be football games and such, charge for parking on that too. (I know some schools already do this)

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“Do you know what motivates a lot of kids to attend high school?…..yep, athletics…..you take away this and the dropout rate in Georgia High Schools would be through the roof.”

Yeah, well if we continue to coddle kids in this way, looking to help them feel better about themselves when they should be going to school to learn and to survive in a tough world, we are going to have big problems anyway. I’m not sure that kids who are only in school for sports should be there anyway, as more than likely they are disruptive and a waste of instruction time. Let them go learn to work at whatever job they can get; a high school diploma isn’t going to make any difference.

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I realize that the question has foretold the answer. However, let us think outside of box for a second. Many districts have SPLOST, which is dedicated to capital investment (buildings etc.). If the governor-elected is willing to push for more flexibility on how SPLOST fund can be used, it can relieve some stress on school funding. Yes, It will not be easy and it will require a referendum.

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I wonder how much of our taxpayer money that APS and other districts are wasting trying to “recover” per pupil funds from the very few state commissioned charter schools that exist? I am quite sure that the out going money will far exceed whatever funds they may “recover” if they win.

As for the discussion about the sports programs….drop it. Cutting sports from HS will never happen. It just won’t. And cutting PE? We have a SERIOUS public health problem in obesity and diabetes. We need kids that WANT to participate in physical activity and learn the skills to do so. You can pay for the PE now or you can pay for the increased healthcare costs later. It’s bad enough that PE is now relegated to only ONE day per week for most students. When I was in school we had PE at least 3 times a week (and 5 days at one of my schools). And don’t even get me started on what they’ve done with recess….15 minutes once a day and teachers can take it away as a punishment? Ugh.

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@catlady….have you seen the wait lists for the Marcus Center and other providers? Plus many school districts no longer employ their own therapists, but instead hire contracting companies to come in and do so. So they aren’t paying benefits out for those folks.

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Enter your comments here

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An American Patriot, we give them paper, pencils, books, breakfast, and lunch, because they can’t seem to afford those….

…although most of them do manage to have the latest cell phones.

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I think everyone here and who reads this blog needs to attend budget hearings and BOE meetings to get the facts about their own county’s positions and problems. It is evident that Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, Dekalb, and APS have very different issues than all the other counties in the metro area and definitely different issues than rural counties that make up the other 150 school districts in Georgia. For metro counties, there are local property taxes that supplement salaries, benefits, and buildings. For the majority of counties in GA, the state salary is all you get and if the state can’t pay, you don’t get paid. I am all for cutting “non-essential” services, but I understand also that what is non-essential to you, is essential to someone else. I think it is also really important in all these blogs to understand that school funding comes from basically four sources and usually those four pots have specific uses that can’t be changed. You get money from federal programs, state funding, local funding, and any “private” funding sources (read donations, private grant foundations, booster clubs, etc.) If Deal wants to give flexibility, he needs to change how school systems are able to use federal dollars. Most of the waste in the bigger systems comes from mishandling of Title I dollars. Educate yourself on how funding actually works in schools, not just how you think it “should” or could or might work.

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@ScienceTeacher671

December 9th, 2010
9:37 pm
If they are only coming to school to play football, how much effort are they actually putting into the academic side of it?

That Sir/Madam? is an excellent question……to answer, I point you sixty-five miles east of Atlanta, toward that football factory known as UGA……need I say more?

@blackbird13

December 9th, 2010
9:33 pm
“If you cut out athletics, you’re not gonna have as many students in school, thus lowering the amount the systems get.”

That in itself is a sad commentary on American life and young people that goes beyond the issues of schools and budgets.

Excellent, excellent point……the whole problem in our school systems is not the students or teachers…..it’s the PARENTS of the students. From an early age, some kids are taught that athletics is the most important thing, not academics and an inordinate amount of time and effort on the part of the parents and students are spent on athletics. The one thing that really disturbs me a lot is seeing a kid walking down the street bouncing a basketball. Only a very small percentage of high school athletes receive full athletic scholarships to attend colleges/universities……and a lesser percentage of those receiving scholarships go on to make it in pro sports…..the odds against it are tremendous. There are a lot of success stories about athletes not playing pro sports and I do not mean to diminish these achievements…….they, not athletes keep this country alive and well.

The chances of cutting athletics out at our high school in Georgia…….slim and none…..no way it’s gonna happen, not in my lifetime

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A number of years ago, the Portland, Oregon school system was broke. School ended 26-days early that year. The next year, school athletics became pay-to-play activities. Parents had to buy uniforms, equipment, and contribute to all other related overhead. I don’t know how many years that went on in Portland, but I do remember feeling sad for the “poor” students who lost the opportunity to compete in sports. I am not saying I agree or disagree with what happened in Portland, but believe that to preserve academics in Georgia, we need to consider all sorts of options.

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Those of you who want to cut sports, PE, etc. are ignorant. I teach high school literature and am not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination, but I know darn well that without athletics, many students would drop out. Football, basketball, track, etc. are the only reasons many of these kids come to, and stay in, school. They keep their grades up in order to play ball. Sure, some of the coaches are lunk-heads, but many times they are the only ones who can reach those kids. I don’t like the cuts any more than any of you, but cutting athletics is just as assinine as cutting music and art. To educate is to create well-rounded individuals. A well-rounded individual is one who has book-knowledge as well as athletic and/or artistic abilities. Open your eyes people. Next time, get rid of the ones causing the problem (Republicans) and replace them with someone different (notice I didn’t say better!).

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mcc, I teach 160 kids multiple times a week~every day in fact. Many of them have IEPs. Many have other processing difficulties. I would LOVE to only have 50 kids that I see multiple times a week. Then I might have a chance of reaching them all.

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I am more on the side of academics (not a sports fan really) but I have to agree with poetry. Just because I do not like/value sports does not mean that my students do not live for them. I just wish that the focus was somewhat more on their schooling.

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I’m reading this, and all I can do is shake my head.

I thought like a lot of these posters, until I moved from a wealthy suburban district to a poor rural district this year.

The school is all some of these kids have. This is where they get their 2 meals a day, where they learn, where people actually care about them.

Cut bus service? I can guarantee you a good chunk of children won’t show up. I know this because I hold an after school tutoring session 2x a week, and most of my students can’t attend due to lack of transportation.

Cut sports? I can assure you a good portion of our kids would fall through the cracks, because that’s all they have to keep them out of trouble. Also, the coaches at MY school? Over half teach core subjects. Another thing: each teacher/administrator in our school helps out at sporting events. I took tickets at a softball game and I ran the concession stand. Our principal took tickets at 4 events. The Assistant Principal worked the concession stand at 4 events-he even handled the pizza runs.

We save money in our district through our energy conservation program-some highlights: unplugging everything over long breaks, and setting our thermostats on 55 degrees when we leave the building in the late fall/winter and ~82 degrees when we leave in the spring/summer/early fall. The facilities manager comes by and checks every now and then to make sure it’s done. Saved the county over a million dollars thus far.

I plan on emailing Gov-elect Deal and letting him know he needs to think of other options, or mandate that the school districts cut at the central office level. I don’t know how much more we can cut.

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@Lisa B – Georgia is a “pay-to-play” state already.

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