It’s tough educating when funding is tight
Public
education is one of the greater gifts a community can provide a child,
and every parent hopes their child will succeed within an academic
setting so they can move forward and find success later in their lives.
A
few weeks ago, our state voted on Amendment 66, a ballot measure that
would have granted our public schools additional funding. However, that
measure did not pass and now Durango School District 9-R is facing the
dilemma of cutting $1.6 million.
The
most difficult thing I see within this process is that, over the course
of the past six years, Colorado has developed multiple state mandates
to implement a more effective learning environment for all students, yet
all of these mandates are unfunded, and districts are left to find
creative ways to ensure implementation. These mandates have increased
accountability measures, which cost money and take away student contact
time and funding that could be used to support students directly. The
requirements often entail additional testing or evaluation for the
students and are directly tied to annual performance evaluations.
Nonetheless,
supplementary testing is not all bad. The district plans to incorporate
School Vault and the use of common formative assessments within daily
school life to better tailor teaching to their students’ needs. Common
formative assessments will be used to inform instruction and focus
learning.
The largest obstacle
pertaining to the goals and focuses for the district is the added
expenses that come along with improving education.
Many
people believe decreasing class sizes is a fantastic way to improve
learning within classrooms, and many others see increasing class sizes
as a way to lower expenditures; however, there are huge problems that
accompany both scenarios.
If the
district was to decrease class sizes, it would have to realize one
crucial factor: To reach a significant change in achievement level it
would have to significantly reduce the class sizes by not just removing
one or two students, but removing five to seven. If this was the case,
it would cost more than $2 million.
On
the contrary, if the district were to increase class size notably, the
chances of having students slip through the cracks would increase, yet
it would be able to save more than $1 million.
In
either situation there are evident pros and cons, yet our district is
doing a good job of attempting to keep class sizes at a reasonable level
while still increasing them. A potentially positive alternative in my
eyes is creating appropriate class sizes where the needier students are
balanced out and distributed to strong teachers. Another possibility at
the high school would be to eliminate Small Learning Communities,
thereby creating realistic class sizes that are distributed to teachers
highly qualified in each content area, thus making class sizes more
manageable and using resources effectively.
Durango
9-R faces some tough decisions in the coming months, but Durango is not
alone. Districts across the nation are faced with the implementation of
the Common Core Standards, new accountability measures and teacher
performance evaluations.
Here in
Durango, we live in a community that values education, and we have a
school district that truly values what is best for students. Where will
the $1.6 million be cut from? That is the question. Currently,
Superintendent Snowberger is holding monthly roundtables to get feedback
from the community. Our community and school district must work
together to ensure our children receive the best education we can
provide, while adhering to new state mandates and cutting the budget.
Jessie
Brammer is a feature editor at El Diablo, the Durango High School
student newspaper. Her parents are Robert and Michol Brammer of Durango.