But What About The Money?

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2011/05/a_breakdown_of_top_losers_gain.html

In light of the new teacher contract and allegations of MSA cheating, I feel like the City Schools’ budget has been put on the back burner. I came across an article written about a month ago that highlights the losses that many of our schools will face. I too had forgotten about the budget cuts and how this will affect the upcoming school year. The article notes that the school board has adopted a budget of $1.3 billion, which give schools 1 percent more money than the years past. Yet principals are now losing out on millions of dollars in what they call “flexible” money used to staff their schools and provide student resources.

For the past week we’ve been debating the issues that surround education reform in an urban environment. I think that many of us, however, will agree on one thing: Money plays a huge factor in helping to turn around a school system. After reading this article about the budget, I can’t help but wonder what this will do to the progress of our schools here in Baltimore. Due to budget cuts at my school, we are losing a fourth and a fifth grade teacher, bringing the class sizes in those grades up to over thirty students. I feel that student achievement and teacher performance will be affected by these large class sizes. And not just at my school, but at schools all around the city. We’ve read about places like the Harlem Children’s Zone and select Charter schools where educators are making significant strides to close the achievement gap. Yet these places also have astronomically large budgets. So what about here in Baltimore City? Is it really possible to make significant gains and progress with our students if our schools keep losing money year after year? Can we be expected to raise test scores and make AYP without the resources and without a fully staffed school? In a world where money is power, how can we be expected to provide the best education for our students with the least amount of funding?