It’s a sad day for America. The Washington Post brings us incisive reporting on the latest casualties of the housing slump:
The rapid cooling of the Washington area’s real estate market has hit school systems with force, abruptly ending years of plenty and compelling superintendents to ask their teachers, bus drivers and custodians to do more with less.
The summary news lede simply doesn’t do justice to this looming educational catastrophe … we need to turn to the numbers.
At Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, parents fear cuts in Montgomery County’s proposed $2.1 billion budget will threaten the math-science magnet program.
The desperate schools of Montgomery County will need to find some way stretch the $15,246 they have to spend on each of the 137,745 students in their schools. The Post informs us that the $2.1 billion budget is “a year-to-year increase of $110 million. But it would be the smallest annual increase since 1997.” This 5 percent increase is the smallest in 10 years! Surely bake sales must be held.
But the devastation is not confined to the wealthier Districts …
The financial hard times are even more visible in jurisdictions with less money to draw on. In Prince George’s County, no money for teachers’ raises is available in the proposed $1.67 billion budget, and an ambitious program to create schools that run from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade is on hold.
Somehow, Prince George’s County must find a way to educate their 134,000 students with just $12,463 to spend per child.
And Virginia is perhaps the hardest hit of all. Fairfax County is staring down a $100 million shortfall that may force them to stop paying some students’ fees for taking Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests.
With only a $2.1 billion budget and $15,246 per student, there is no room for such extravagances in Fairfax County.
I have saved the most touching story for last …
In Loudoun County, School Board members approved a budget 14 percent higher than last year’s to accommodate an expected 3,000 new students. The county faces a projected $250 million shortfall, and the 54,000 student system will probably have to look for new places for savings.
My heart goes out to the Loudoun County administrators. I can’t see how anyone can be expected to educate a child with just $15,000 or to cover a 6 percent enrollment increase with just a 14 percent increase in the budget.
Clearly, our schools have fallen on hard times. We must dig deep into our pockets and pull out just a little bit more to get them through these trying times. We owe it to our children.
