Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 17, 1995 TAG: 9508170014
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BILL LALIK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Recently, I visited with about 200 other elementary and middle-school principals from every state, from inner cities and small towns, suburbs and rural areas. We were in Washington, D.C., at a meeting of our professional association, the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
The first day, we got on buses and went to Capitol Hill - in 98-degree heat - to talk with our representatives and senators. I would like to summarize our discussions with members of Congress.
We told them why American children need their federal government's help in their schools. We asked them to stop cutting funds for programs that help our children.
We pointed out that it's just about impossible for the public to understand how these cuts will affect their community schools. It's difficult for people to translate the billion-dollar federal budget statistics they hear on the news to the school down the street in their community. We asked why we needed a huge tax cut when we're trying to balance the national budget.
We asked why, when education programs receive only 2 percent of the huge national budget, they are the target of such deep cuts. Many schools could lose as much as 18 percent of their federal funds in one year. Imagine the impact on household budgets were there an 18 percent reduction in family income.
Although most Americans (80 percent) say it's important to balance the budget, the vast majority (78 percent) oppose cutting education as a means of reducing the deficit (New York Times-CBS Poll, December 1994), and the Wall Street Journal found that 68 percent of Americans believe the federal government should spend more on education.
Here are a few examples of what principals predict will happen in our area schools, and schools everywhere, if Congress does cut education dollars as it proposes.
nWe will lose teachers. Children, especially kids who need it the most, won't get as much adult attention. Title I, the law that provides schools with money to pay for extra teachers and other aides to help poor and disadvantaged children, will be so drastically cut that help for 1 million students will be dropped. Some of those kids live in Roanoke city and surrounding areas. These children, many from poor and depressed homes, won't get the extra tutoring to help them learn to read and do math. Children who don't speak English won't get the help they need to learn it.
nClass sizes will grow. This, another result of Title I funding cuts, means much less one-on-one attention for children. Principals and teachers will tell you that 15 to 18 students to one teacher is an ideal class size, especially in kindergarten, first and second grades. (That's why expensive private schools maintain this class size.) Our typical class size in those grades is 20 students. These are difficult standards to maintain even with federal funds, and impossible without them.
nWe will lose counselors if funding for drug-abuse education is cut in half as proposed. We need our counselors to intervene early to teach children to stay away from tobacco, drugs and alcohol, especially at a time when every week a new study reports that these addictions are on the rise among youngsters. Some Roanoke area children will be at risk of addiction.
nScience and math teachers won't get the excellent training they have been receiving thanks to federal programs. These are also under the budget knife at a time when everyone agrees that our students need better instruction in these subjects to compete in the global marketplace. Teachers in the Roanoke area will be affected.
You won't notice these kinds of changes in schools right away. But little by little, you'll begin to see our school buildings falling into disrepair or not being refurbished. Why? The physical plants, buildings and grounds are always sacrificed during budget shortfalls. Communities try hardest to save their teachers' jobs and curricular programs; building upkeep always moves to the back burner.
In fact, you may not notice changes for a year or two. Budgets are planned in advance. But sooner or later, our taxes will begin to creep up. Just because federal dollars dry up doesn't mean the need for the services disappears. Our communities will have to decide whether to lower standards or raise taxes.
There will be many disappointed and upset people in the Roanoke area when citizens figure out that the buck hasn't stopped; it's just moved out of Washington and closer to home.
Bill Lalik, of Blacksburg, is principal at Monterey Elementary School in Roanoke.
by CNB