11Alive.com - More Metro Atlanta Public Schools to Face Big Budget Cuts in 2010-2011

By Jon Shirek

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - March 12, 2010 It's late Friday afternoon, at the Gwinnett Arena: Atlanta's Benjamin E. Mays and Lithonia's Miller Grove are playing each other in the boys State AAAA High School basketball tournament.

And in the stands, mixed with the cheers, there is worry.

"Well, we're not very happy about the cutbacks."

Mary Palmer, whose son is playing for Mays, could be speaking for all the parents in the arena and across the state.

In her case she's just finding out that Atlanta's public schools are going to have to cut $47 million out of their budgets for the 2010-2011 school year.

And one way they'll do it is just pack more students into each classroom, because there's not enough money for enough teachers.

"Our classrooms are already overcrowded," Palmer says, "so now [they'll] make our classrooms even larger?"

"It's going to be very tough next year," says Georgia's School Superintendent Kathy Cox, who's at the arena to cheer the players with their parents.

Cox says that, just as Atlanta was not the first school district announcing massive, 2010-2011 budget cuts in the past month or so, Atlanta will definitely not be the last -- especially as the state and the schools spend next year's federal stimulus money this year to survive.

"A lot from Metro Atlanta," will be struggling to stay above water, she says, "but you're also going to hear from systems all over the state.... They're hurting. And they realize the stimulus came in and helped, but the cliff is coming."

She pointed out that Metro Atlanta's economy is not going to improve overnight. "We've got higher unemployment in Metro Atlanta than we do the rest of the state. That really hasn't happened in modern history," and that leads to less revenue coming in to local and state governments from sales taxes and, because of foreclosures and lower property values, it leads to less revenue coming in from property taxes.

"This is really impacting our large, metro area systems, and they're making some very tough decisions about programs."

One way that Cox and the Georgia Department of Education have tried to help -- since the state lacks enough money to bail out the local schools -- is by granting waivers to 120 school systems, so far, to free them temporarily from having to comply with various expensive state regulations.

For example, "We got a request for a waiver from Cherokee County that said, 'Can we use one principal for both our regular high school and our night school?'"

The answer: yes, for now, given the extraordinary circumstances of this recession.

But does the granting of the waivers amount to just one more way that the recession budgets can hurt quality?

Her office is monitoring the results of all of the waivers.

"We'll evaluate student achievement, see where the waivers were, that it really didn't hurt student achievement to not have to follow that rule. And that then tells us we've got a regulation we don't need."

Back on the court, Miller Grove beats Mays.

And Mary Palmer worries the state is letting the clock run out on everybody.

"I think that our legislators really need to go back and put their heads together and come up with some other ways to deal with the deficits and the budget cuts. We just need to bring more revenue in. Let's come up with a way other than [cutting] education."

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This is the press release from the Atlanta Public Schools, dated March 12, 2010, about the upcoming budget cuts:

APS is taking steps to reduce spending by $47.4 million for the 2010-2011 school year that includes increasing class size, two involuntary furlough days for all employees and a district-wide freeze on salary steps and cost of living increases.

The projected district budget for the next school year is $588.6 million, which is down $47.4 million from the FY 2009-2010 budget. Georgia school districts are required by law to have balanced budgets in place by the beginning of the new fiscal year.

APS is funded by a combination of property tax revenues and state funding for education. Over the past seven years, state funding for APS has been cut $68.3 million.

The district has made up for state education funding cuts and reductions in property tax revenues due to the economic downturn through a series of austerity measures. Department budgets are being reduced an average of 10 percent next year, and district officials anticipate using approximately $9.5 million from the unrestricted fund balance to help meet next year's budget.

"These are tight financial times for all of us," said Superintendent Dr. Beverly L. Hall. "Belt-tightening to make ends meet is a shared responsibility at APS, and all areas of the district are being asked to use our dwindling financial resources judiciously by prioritizing spending for those areas that are associated with teaching and learning and student academic performance."

APS plans to continue its decade-long school reform initiatives despite these funding challenges, including the middle and high school transformations. There will also be no loss of instructional time for students.

The first of two scheduled community meetings on the proposed FY11 budget is 6 p.m. Thursday, April 1 at Burgess-Peterson Elementary School, 480 Clifton St., SE Atlanta, 30316. The second community meeting on the proposed budget is 6 p.m. Thursday, April 22 at Jean Childs Young Middle School, 3116 Benjamin E. Mays Dr., SW, Atlanta, 30311.