Let’s keep Georgia’s educators working — our kids need them

By Arne Duncan

Schools across the country are facing a full-blown financial crisis. As many as 300,000 teachers could be laid off before the next school year.

In addition to potential layoffs, states and districts are cutting programs that are vital for the success of students. They’re canceling or scaling back summer school, early learning and after-school programs. Some school districts are going to four-day weeks. School counselors, nurses and librarians are also at risk, as are extracurricular activities, arts programs and sports.

Enrichment programs and support services like these can be the difference for some students, motivating them to attend school instead of dropping out or helping struggling students catch up.

At precisely the time when our students need to be learning more, they will be learning less. At precisely the time when our students need a broader education, the variety of academic offerings will be shrinking.

In short, the cuts facing our schools endanger our efforts to provide American students with a world-class education.

As a former school superintendent in Chicago, I know how difficult it is to create a budget in normal budget times, let alone times like this. I encourage administrators to do everything possible to avoid classroom cuts and look for ways to be more efficient and productive — both to protect students, but also to allow reform to move forward.

We all know that schools can be more efficient — and they must look for ways to do so. But the current financial crisis facing schools is too large to be solved through short-term efficiencies alone. The work of making our schools efficient will require time to be carefully planned and implemented.

Meanwhile, school districts are in trouble right now. School boards and state legislatures are finalizing their education budgets for the upcoming school year.

Many of them in your community and across Georgia face tough choices about whether to retain teachers and continue programs that are vital to their ability to provide a world-class education for their students.

Too often, state and local policymakers are faced with the choice of cutting education spending or raising taxes. Neither is good for kids because they’ll result in cuts to services they need for a complete education.

Neither is good for the economy in the short run or the long run. We should be educating our way to a better economy. We can’t do that by cutting our schools.

Congress will soon consider a proposal to provide $23 billion
in emergency funding for America’s schools. The bill would save approximately 10,207 jobs in Georgia.

We’re beginning to see signs of an economic recovery. We’ve had four consecutive months of job growth for the first time since President Barack Obama took office. Other economic indicators are looking up.

We must act quickly and responsibly to provide schools the resources they need so they don’t have to make choices that would not be in the best interests of their students and teachers.

Arne Duncan is U.S. secretary of education.