South Carolina Faces $200 Million In Budget Cuts Thursday
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South Carolina Public School Brace for Another...
South Carolina Public School Brace for Another Round of Budget CutsThe State Budget and Control Board meets Thursday at 10 a.m. in Columbia, and educators are bracing for news they are about to be hit with another budget cut of four to five percent. South Carolina is looking at $200 Million dollars in budget cuts. The state’s economic advisors have cut over $328 million from their revenue forecast since the state budget was passed. According to State Superintendent of Education Dr. Jim Rex, “Most of the school district expenses are related to personnel, so we may be look at further layoffs or restriction of numbers of courses offered and larger class sizes.”
It’s an opinion echoed by an Upstate Superintendent. Spartanburg District 4 Superintendent Dr. Rallie Liston lost ten employees last year, so the $400,000 cut he is expecting is a lot of money for a smaller district. Liston says, “We ordered paper and supplies, and we have frozen future requests for future supplies. Where else are you going to get it?“ Dr. Liston says the district can dip into the reserve funds one more time, but that’s it. According to Liston, “We can’t do that one more year, so when we get into December and January, we are going to have to circle the wagon, and say where are we right now? What are we going to have to do?“ Liston says school districts are already seeing larger class sizes. Personnel and program cuts could come next. “There is nothing else that we can cut,” says Liston.
However Dr. Liston says, the bottom line is, schools will take care of their students. “They don’t know about the budget. They’re not in tune with that. They want to know if they are going to feel loved. They want to know if there are going to be safe. Parents want to know that. That’s something we can do, that I don’t think you can put a price tag on that.“
According to Dr. Rex, South Carolina school districts lost about 1900 employees last year. Rex says stimulus money saved 500 of those jobs this year; but those jobs could be in danger with an anticipated four to five percent cut.
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Reader Reactions
First, the lottery was modeled after Georgia. Georgia and SC’s lottery has always paid for higher education tuition.
Second. These are new “state” cuts (under a Republican Governor, Republican House/Senate) that are being forced down the school district’s throats. Nothing Democratic about it.
Finally, This is not just happening in SC. These State cuts which are more than the Stimulus money are hitting K-12 education in most states including SC and Georgia.
Preach on Scott! Once again the Democrats were bound and determined to get a Lottery and now they have it and what do they do with it? They give it to higher education (College and up). The kids have got to get there first but they can’t get there if they don’t have the staff, equipment, etc. to get them there. I agree - something definitely wrong with this picture. The Greenville News doesn’t want to mention this - they’d rather drag out the governor’s personal affairs rather than make the public aware of what is really happening.
Is there not something seriously wrong with this picture? We are supposed to be improving our education system, not regressing! South Carolina ALWAYS comes in last or next to last in most demographic categories you want to look at…no matter what the issue is! It is no wonder the rest of the nation still looks at the South as uneducated redneck hillbillies with 19th century ideals. I am not totally in tune to exactly what the South Carolina Education Lottery was supposed to do for our state, but it seems to me like we could channel some of that revenue to the education system and save the badly needed educators we have in our state. Wake up people!
Hmmm…now all that whining about getting the stimulus money was to prevent teacher layoffs. What happened Democrats?
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