Report: Education-based Budget Cuts Detrimental To America's Class Room

Campaign for America’s Future, a liberal organization, recently released a report that outlines the detrimental effects education-based budget cuts are having on students across the country.

The report, “Starving America’s Public Schools: How Budget Cuts And Policy Mandates Are Hurting Our Nation’s Students,” indicates increased budget cuts the the nation’s education system are removing subjects like art, music and physical education from classroom curricula.

“The five states have reduced or eliminated crucial services, such as pre-kindergarten, full-day kindergarten, technical education and foreign language courses, art, music and physical education. Several of the states also have increased class sizes.  In each state, the dwindling public school funds are being transferred to private entities, such as private schools and voucher programs,” according to the report.

Below are some specific examples outlined in the organization’s report of how the budget cuts are affecting students.

- Florida has cut more than $1 billion from education in its new budget for 2011–12, an almost 8 percent drop that translates to a loss of $542 per student.

- Overriding the governor’s veto, the North Carolina General Assembly approved a 2011 budget that cut $800 million in education funding. The state ranked 47th in spending per pupil in the country in 2010 and likely will slip to 49th in 2011.

- In Pennsylvania: In Chester Upland, 40 percent of the teachers were eliminated, with class sizes rising from 21 to 30 in elementary schools and to 35 in high schools.

-In New York: art, music and physical education classes were eliminated in elementary schools.