By Daniel L. Bamberg
Daniel@Centrevillepress.com
The Alabama legislature is currently considering two bills offering to lessen the number of days Alabama public schools are required to remain open. These bills, if signed into law, may save money. Many schools are currently facing strict budget cuts, which may lead to layoffs.
The only other option seems to be increasing classroom size. Current averages suggest classrooms average around 20 students for grades 4-12. According to Alabama House Speaker Seth Hammett, if legislatures do not do one or the other as many as 3,500 teachers and 7,000 of other personnel could be laid off. Representative Richard Lindsey, who is pushing the bill, suggests increasing classroom size is a “last resort.”
The idea of saving money seems to come from the fact that teacher’s salaries are based on how many days they work in a year. Reducing the number of days they work from 180 to 175 might be enough to allow the schools to survive an increasing economic crisis. Having these school buildings closed for 5 more days should also reduce expenses.
Lindsey has created another bill which, if signed into law, would give local school systems the option of using state money intended for building new schools and other capital projects to be used for normal operating expenses.
State Superintendent Joe Morton expressed that increasing the school year to 180 days was a big leap forward for Alabama schools, which had been behind on the National average before then. Moving to a 175-day school year would bring Alabama back under the National average. Lindsey is expected to have a budget proposal ready by Wednesday, March 24th.
No comments:
Post a Comment