Tag Archive for ‘fuel prices’ at The Core Knowledge Blog

Many of the nation’s school districts start the new school year under financial stress, with budget cuts, higher fuel and food costs. The New York Times leads a bleak school year curtain-raiser from Louisville, Kentucky where school officials say record numbers of students turning up for classes this fall are homeless or poor enough to qualify for free meals.

As 50 million children return to classes across the nation, crippling increases in the price of fuel and food, coupled with the economic downturn, have left schools from California to Florida to Maine cutting costs. Some are trimming bus service, others are restricting travel, and a few are shortening the school week. And as many districts are forced to cut back, the number of poor and homeless students is rising.

“The big national picture is that food and fuel costs are going up and school revenues are not,” Anne L. Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association, tells the Times. “We’re in a recession, and it’s having a dramatic impact on schools.”

Detroit has laid off at least 700 teachers, the Times notes, Los Angeles 500 administrators and Miami-Dade County hundreds of school psychologists, maintenance workers and custodians. And all across the country field trips are being cut to save gas, while many schools have adopted four-day weeks.

How big is the impact of rising fuel and energy costs on schools? USA Today puts it in sharp relief: one in seven school districts is considering cutting back to four-day weeks this fall. One in four is considering limits on athletics and other extracurricular activities. One in three is eliminating teaching jobs.

“In the first detailed look at how fuel costs are affecting schools, a survey by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) finds 99% of superintendents contacted say they’re feeling the pinch — and 77% say they’re not getting any help from their state,” reports USAT’s Greg Toppo.

Scary.

Update: See that little link up top for comments? Click it to read John Thompson’s view of the tensions budget troubles create between policy types and those who go to work in schools every day. “In the real world vs. the theory of policy reform, administrators in most of the country spend a lot more time dealing with sports than student achievement,” he writes. ”And no national mandate is going to change that in the short run. Paying for gas for field trips will not only divert money but attention.” Good, clear-eyed stuff.