Tulsa-area school officials are disappointed that funding in next year's state education budget has either been cut or eliminated for two key programs tied to legislative mandates.
At a special State Board of Education meeting Tuesday, the board approved a fiscal year 2013 activities fund budget that restored a portion of funds to programs such as Great Expectations, the FIRST Robotics competition and A+ Schools. It also protected funding for items such as the Oklahoma Arts Institute and Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom.
More than $6 million in Reading Sufficiency funding - which used to ensure children are reading at grade-level by third grade - was eliminated. Achieving Classroom Excellence remediation money - which is used to provide extra help for high school students to pass the required tests to earn a diploma - was cut by $1 million.
"Those are the two biggest ones that concern me because in a year that was supposed to be a 'standstill budget year,' we had money shifted away from those programs to others - that are probably great and worthy programs - but they are vendor-based programs that go only to a select few schools and not every school in the state," said Enid Superintendent Shawn Himes.
The Reading Sufficiency and ACE remediation programs affect all schools statewide, Himes said.
Activities fund reductions were necessary because of new line items, such as benchmark testing, and funding for reform measures that the Legislature passed. More than $7 million was designated to implement a social-promotion law and an A-to-F grading system for schools.
"They put $1 million in the budget to create new benchmark assessments when most schools already have benchmark assessments created," Himes said. "I think we would have been better served by having schools come together to share their benchmark assessments to save that $1 million."
Union Superintendent Cathy Burden said the elimination of Reading Sufficiency funding "is going to be a major blow." Those funds allowed Union to extend the instructional day and offer summer reading programs for students who need assistance.
Last year, legislators amended the Reading Sufficiency Act to now require that third-graders be held back if they fail a specific reading test.
The retention testing will begin with the 2013-14 school year.
"It is ironic that legislators are so concerned about third-graders reading and students scoring well on state testing that we impose serious consequences on the child ... but there is no money provided to offer extra assistance and more learning time for struggling students," Burden said.
ACE remediation funding was cut by $1 million from last year's $7.5 million allotment.
"With all the controversy of ACE, it should be perfectly obvious that in order to hold students to high standards, we need additional resources to help them develop academic competencies," Burden said. "Oklahoma is using a hammer, rather than a carrot, to address educational issues."
In addition, the Oklahoma Parents as Teachers program, an early childhood initiative to help first-time parents learn to become their child's first teacher, was shorted nearly $600,000 in the budget.
"It's disappointing that we are called on to reduce spending in areas that benefit our youngest students, particularly after we (TPS) have already cut expenditures by over $22 million during the last few years," said Trish Williams, chief financial officer for Tulsa Public Schools.
At Tuesday's board meeting, State Superintendent Janet Barresi said the state Legislature allowed the department and board discretion over just $10.5 million of the $453 million activities fund.
Lawmakers gave common education a total appropriation of $2.34 billion.
"With very few dollars available, the board simply couldn't fund those items," she said. "We intend to immediately begin working to seek a supplemental appropriation from the Legislature next year to offset some very painful cuts."
Estimated losses
Some area districts would lose funding in three key programs: Reading Sufficiency, ACE remediation and Oklahoma Parents as Teachers. The losses include:
Broken Arrow - $256,000
Sand Springs - $90,000
Tulsa - $688,009
Union - $133,884 (Reading Sufficiency only); last year's allocation for ACE remediation was $170,444 and OKPAT was $48,500
Kim Archer 918-581-8315
kim.archer@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Remediation and reading program cuts vex educators
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