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With the colossal budget cuts that the government and states are enacting on schools, the effect on the students is drastic. The articles that I used were from the National Education Association and The Guardian. The article from the NEA is written by Amanda Litvinov, the Senior Writer and Editor at NEA. The article from The Guardian is written by Rebecca Ratcliffe, and is a observer newsdesk assistant and freelance writer. These sources are credible because they are both well-known websites that relay reliable and accurate information. With these budget cuts, students abilities to learn are substantially decreased because students receive less individual teacher attention, since teachers are being let-off due to lower budgets, and students receive less materials to learn to their full potential.
To start off, budget cuts drastically affect students abilities to learn. They receive less materials, such as textbooks, computer, etc., in order to get a better education. “Another teacher said their department has been left unable to print students’ coursework because there are no working printers in the department.” (Guardian). In addition to receiving less materials, this also affects the amount of work they need to complete because of the drawbacks of things such as technology, worksheets, etc. “Three quarters of those surveyed described their workload as unmanageable.” Many students have afterschool activities, and with these setbacks from the school, they have to work much harder in order to learn at their full capability.
With these budget cuts also comes more teachers being laid off. Since the schools are receiving less money, they won’t be able to afford all of their teachers, which leads to more and more teachers being fired. However, the amount of students don’t change. This leads to class sizes to exponentially increase. “For example, a school in Phoenix had fired 2 teachers, and the class sizes skyrocketed. “Last year her junior high science classes ranged from 22 to 30 students per class, but after losing two colleagues, the count shot up to 38 to 41 per class. “That assumes that all teachers are here or we have a sub,” says Hagen. “If not, I could have around 55 kids in my class.”” (NEA). There was also a survey, conducted by the American Association of School Administrators, that showed, “for 2009-10, 44 percent of districts expected to increase class sizes, which is three times the number who said the same thing about the previous school year.” (NEA). Class sizes are consistently increasing because less teachers have become available.
Another result of teachers being laid-off and increasing class size is that students will receive less one-on-one attention. Many students who need this specific attention are unable to receive it, which leads to the students not being able to learn at their full potential, and ultimately leads to a higher high school dropout rate. “Many respondents feared that funding pressures would mean less support for students who have additional learning needs. One respondent wrote that, as learning assistants are made redundant, “the job of supporting students who require specialist one-to-one support in an overpopulated classroom has had its onus clearly and squarely put on the classroom teacher.” (Guardian). Studies have also showed that African-American students and students of low-income families are most vulnerable to dropping out of high school due to the fact that they cannot get the one-on-one attention they need. “The evidence that smaller class sizes increase student achievement, particularly for African-American and low-income students, is irrefutable, says NEA research analyst Kathy Tuck.” (NEA). With the budget cuts that are taking place due to the government and states, we have seen that this affects amount of jobs available, class sizes increasing, and students receiving less materials in order to get the best possible education. With this knowledge in mind, this leads to the question of what programs are most vulnerable to budget cuts.
