As the budget crisis continues, cuts are increasing all around us. Because our schools are losing funds, there has been an increase in our furlough days and an increase in the amount of teachers being laid off. A shorter school year makes it more difficult for teachers to cover the state standards and we are forced to pack more material in a smaller amount of time. And with fast- paced curriculum and large classes, it is hard for teachers to make sure each student receives the attention that they need.
This year, Ventura Unified School District is lucky to only have three furlough days instead of the 10 furlough days the district was planning on taking. Ventura Unified is now in session for 179 days, and Ojai Unified and Oxnard Unified have 175 school days. In my opinion, furlough days can be a good thing and a bad thing. Students like them because they get time off from school, but it’s bad for the teachers because they don’t get paid for their time off.
Because of the current budget cuts, parents are being asked to donate money, classroom supplies, and time so that schools can continue to offer their usual activities.
The effects can be seen in our school electives, like art, which only receives about $300 in funding this year. I believe it is important to keep clubs, electives and sports because they are important extra curricular activities. How did we get to this point? As students, we are not able to do much to change this situation. The majority of the country is facing these problems, which seems unfair.Despite this, Foothill managed to get an API score of 914, the highest in the school’s history. This shows that even if budget cuts are weakening some of our areas, Foothill is still managing to pull off high test scores.
Since it doesn’t look like the state budget crisis is going to by fixed any time soon all we can do is be thankful and appreciative for the faculty, parents, and teachers who are helping to make up the difference in the budget by continuing to support all of us here at Foothill.
