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The economic principle I examined was because of scarcity, people choose. All choices have an opportunity cost. This economic principle can be applied to many real-world situations. While studying School Budget Cuts, I found many examples of this principle. In my second blog post, I focused on why states are cutting funds to certain programs in schools. One of the biggest reasons that states have had to cut school budgets is because of a downturn in the economy which has led to a higher unemployment rate and lower tax revenue. Because of this, there is less money being cycled into the economy due to less consumer spending. Since state governments are making less money, they have to make a decision that will lead to the least opportunity cost, and most times, their decision results in school budget cuts. Second, in my third blog post, I talked about how budget cuts affect students. With the budget cuts that states enforce on schools, many programs are affected substantially. One of the ways in which students are affected is, with class sizes increasing because of teacher layoffs, there is much less individual student-to-teacher attention. Another way in which students abilities to learn are hindered due to budget cuts is students receive less materials and technology, such as textbooks and computers, to learn at their full potential. Finally, in my fifth blog post, I discussed how budget cuts affect teachers from teaching at their full capability. One of the biggest reasons that teachers are prevented from giving a proper education is because they cannot give students the supplies necessary in order for the to learn. For example, Gina Marie Warswick, an art teacher in El Paso, Texas, said, ““How am I supposed to teach art to 80 kids on a $200 budget?””. “Class sizes have increased while her budget has been cut to a fraction of the $1,200 she used to have, explains the Desert View Middle School art teacher. “Even the most basic projects will cost more than $2.50 [per child] in supplies, and obviously I can’t have them complete only one assignment for the year.”” (NEA). Another reason for why teachers are prevented from teaching at their full potential is because class sizes are drastically increasing. Overall, you can see that budget cuts are drastically affecting schools across America. In the near future, we need to find a way to increase consumer spending in order to boost the economy so schools can get the money required to give teachers the opportunity to give students the education they need in order to be successful after school.
