The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

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February 13, 2012

Letter: Local school system faces trouble

The students and teachers of Whitfield County are living out a slow motion disaster. Ten years of cuts to education funding from the state, now totaling $50 million just for Whitfield County Schools, and a recession that has been particularly brutal to our carpet-dependent economy have combined with bad decisions made at both the state and county levels to put both our students and those who teach them at great risk.

Now, Whitfield County Schools face another deep hole in its budget, $7 million. Talk of fewer days of instruction for students, added layoffs, more furloughs, fewer programs and higher class sizes permeate the discussion. The governor is forecasting another state budget deficit for 2014, so little help can be hoped for from Atlanta any time soon.

Our community faces a gut check; will we continue to let our children’s educational opportunity lag? At Eastbrook Middle School, our free and reduced percentage has risen to 90 percent. Our students are working hard to achieve, but as the latest national research shows, we can close achievement gaps based on race and ethnicity, but those based on poverty take more instructional time.

In any just world, our students would have 200 days of instruction to give them a chance to succeed. In our world, we do not even fund 180 days of school any more, and if those who only see cutting as a path to a better future prevail, far fewer days ahead. This will mean more days of not being exposed to books or math, hearing proper grammar and far too often a decent meal. Our state leaders have made the decision to abandon their constitutional obligation to fund our public schools; what will our local leaders do to fill in the gap?

 

Ralph Noble

Eastbrook Middle School

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