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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – With sweeping budget cuts looming in the state of Texas, school districts are in a dire situation.
The state contributes $25 billion to public schools, but House Bill 1 intends to cut that by about $9.5 billion, leaving school districts looking at drastic changes.
Fort Worth trustees are worried about how the state’s budget cuts will impact their district. Layoffs, though, seem inevitable.
Any way it’s added up, the budget problems will soon equal a grave situation for Fort Worth ISD.
“Yeah, we’re between a rock and a hard place,” said spokesman Clint Bond.
The district is already functioning with a $30 million deficit this year and 85 percent of its $600 million budget is used for salaries, which means job cuts seem unavoidable. The school board will start a series of budget workshops Tuesday.
“The reduction in personnel will be a reality at some point but we don’t know to what extent,” Bond said. “We anticipate a cut from the state for us between 10 and 15 percent so that could be as little as 60 million to as much as 80 to 85 million, depending what happens.”
Sen. Wendy Davis (D – Fort Worth) has proposed a bill that could at least lessen the blow, by giving public schools a 20 percent discount on basic utilities, the same discount already passed on to public universities.
“We cannot look at our school districts and say ‘we’re going to put you in this type of a financial crisis,” said State Senator Wendy Davis, of Fort Worth. “In Fort Worth ISD that would be about $3 million in savings per year. That’s a lot of teachers.”
Regardless, trustees are still facing a mathematical nightmare with no easy solution.
“Quality has to suffer when you start cutting personnel, especially teachers,” said Dave Robinson, past president of the Fort Worth Education Association. “There’s not a lot of fat in this budget to cut, at least not as far as personnel are concerned, in my opinion there are programs that need to go before you start cutting people.”
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14 Comments
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well Texas y’all have that governor Rick Perry to thank for this mess! but you go right back and elect him to four more years deal with it then!!!!
February 11, 2011 at 5:11 pm
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I would really like to know why no one is looking to real culprits in this budget mess. Rick Perry and his administration has been responsible for the consistant downgrading of the Texas state schools. He and the Republican controled legislature have continully placed education on the back burner and now we have this mess, which Perry claimed that there was no problem with the state budget during his campaign for governor. So he gets elected again and here we are. My children are grown, but I understand that without a good education this state and even our nation can not prosper without the children get a good education. Some one in the media needs to confront the governor and legislature. Do you have the guts to do it. I hope so.
February 11, 2011 at 5:32 pm
not sure why there is not discussion on cutting back in areas like sports and band.
February 11, 2011 at 6:04 pm
How about getting illegals’ kids out of our schools? That alone would put the city back in the black. Less teachers, less schools, no bilingualism – win win for Ft W.
How fair is it to expect American taxpayers to foot the bill for the children of those who didn’t even bother entering our country legally? Not to mention the millions of anchor babies. It just goes on & on.
February 11, 2011 at 6:16 pm
How is that a win win? Less teachers means layoffs which is not a win. And as much as you might hate it, anchor babies are citizens and have every right to an education.
February 12, 2011 at 9:32 am
furlough day for teachers, what a joke they already get 3 months off…
February 12, 2011 at 8:36 am
I believe a teacher’s salary is for 9 months of work that is spread out over an entire year. They don’t get paid to have summer vacation. The money they get for those 9 months of work is still not enough for all of the work they do (at least for good teachers).
February 12, 2011 at 9:34 am
Has Perry moved out of that $600,000 a month mansion yet??? He should have to suffer like the rest of the state.
February 12, 2011 at 5:38 pm
The school systems need to force the issue to know which students are illegal, then make them pay for their schooling. Instead of us American Taxpayers. No free education for illegals any longer.
February 13, 2011 at 11:25 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Texas pass the state lottery where the proceeds would fund the texas school systems so this kind of problem would not occur?
February 14, 2011 at 5:14 am
That’s what I thought also. Hmmmmm.
February 14, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Thank you everyone who voted for Perry.
February 17, 2011 at 11:51 am