Is this happening in your area? Our school districts are cutting busing to high school students and k-8 students who live within a certain distance from the school. We had a great plan in place for DS in 1/2 day kindy and afternoons at his old preschool's after school program. They were going to work on advanced academics in PM since our K is more social for him anyway. Now with his busing cut, how am I supposed to get him to an afterschool program? Other working moms switched quickly to private schools or the public schools offer a full day option for a tuition of $4.5k. I feel like they are a) punishing parents for a failed school levy b) forcing working parents to pay for an all day option. Is this happening around the country or just in our area?

There's been talk about cutting bus services in our area, as well. I don't pay too much attention to it, though, since DS doesn't ride the bus. When we moved here, I was shocked to find out that if DS was going to ride the bus, we had to pay for it at the beginning of the year. I've heard from some other parents that they dropped one of the trips (morning or afternoon) for their kids because the prices had gone up mid-year. Things are definitely much different than they were way back when.

It was a month into the school year before the city scheduled the busing for the area private and charter schools. Legally the city has to provide the busing. The surrounding suburban districts didn't have a problem getting the buses running from day one. I'm suspicious that its all about money.

DD ended up being the only elementary student from her school on her bus and the first AM and last PM stop. So we didn't do it. Driving to and from school takes up about 3 hours of my day. Blah.

I've read articles about school districts switching to a 4-day week and I've wondered about the implications for working parents.

It's a difficult situation for you, especially on fairly short notice. I do think it's happening all across the country, to some degree or another. I've also heard mention of kids having to pay to participate in middle school sports. I don't get that. Excluding kids from an activity at a public school based on ability to pay? So eventually the HS teams will be dominated by kids who had the "oppotunity" (money) to play in middle school? Whoa.

With overall lower compensation levels for a lot of people, and much higher child care/busing expenses, the work vs. not work equation is changing for a lot of people.

BTW - $4500 sound high. How many hours / days is that?

DD attends the district where DH and I work as teachers (a privilege of employment) not where we are zoned, so we all carpool.

But, in the district where we are zoned (and in which there are no direct GT services!) students have to live 2 miles or more away from the assigned school to receive a bus pass. We live within the 2 mile radius so she wouldn't qualify. Our assigned school is across downtown Austin from us; without a parent provided car ride, she'd have to walk over a mile through high rise buildings, busy traffic, etc. (But not uphill in the snow both ways, haha.)

Lots of kids in our zoned district use public transportation since there isn't enough money for safe transportation for all students.

They are discussing it all over our state. Cuts to education are v. deep and it is one way the BOE can cut costs. No one likes it, but they are trying to avoid cutting program.

States all over are nearly bankrupt, so I think we will keep seeing more education cuts for a while (I don't agree, but it is what it is at this point).

Most school districts could outsource their grounds and building maintenance and save a lot of money. Another area is cafeteria outsourcing. Another area is bus transportation.

Any area where their is a lot of hardware tied up that is only used for a few hours a day or a week is a candidate for this.

Another idea is for local districts to stagger their hours so they can use the same buses and drivers and thus split the cost.

Small changes in lots of areas can add up to a lot of money in the long run.

That's interesting - I think that's pretty unusual, for a city to provide busing for charter and private schools. This is the first I've heard of that. Charters are popular here but there's no busing to charters.

I'd guess that would be an area of the budget quick to get the axe, if they can managed to get your state(?) law changed.

Although it considered impolite and politically incorrect to mention, among the greatest drains to our school budgets throughout the state of IL are the educators� retirement benefit packages.

Teachers and administrators retire with 75% (K-12) or 80% (cc & U level) of last three years average income plus increases until they and their spouse die. In comparison, I believe 30% of end of career income is the average for US workers who are lucky enough to receive a pension.

Most people here do not quibble about the yearly 2% teacher pay increases (in addition to frequent step increases) and agree the average teacher salary seems strong, but reasonable (and the average administrator salary is too high). However, many people are completely unaware of the uncommonly generous pensions and health care plans, which directly translate to program cuts.

Since the teachers� union scored these rewards and as more and more educators are joining the retired ranks, there is less and less money to maintain current teacher levels or to put towards the students� other educational needs- despite higher and higher property taxes.

I was appalled when i found out that parents had to pay for bussing at our schools. That's only elementary. The high school kids have to get a monthly bus pass or get driven. That's $35 a month and there is almost no help for kids who can't afford it. It's ridiculous...

I agree that academics come first, but then I think that any link between the schools and athletic programs should be severed. It seems wrong to me to partially fund school sports, but then charge an additional fee that creates a barrier for some students. It seems like a slippery slope to me and not really in keeping with the spirit of free public education.

*somehow* our county's budget is not too horrific this time around, but long distance express buses to specialty schools are cut, so kids depending on that to get to a language or math focused program are out of luck. Ds has applied to one such program, but we are not depending on the bus, thankfully (I just drive hours a day, woohoo!)

That would basically cover from 12-3pm. The AM Kindergarten is from 9:25-11:55 am. Great deal huh??

I would like to also point out that savings from busing cuts is 0.5% of the total school district budget. So it makes me think they are trying to strong arm the next levy through. 86% is teacher salaries, and they are scheduled to get a raise the next two years per their contract. Average teacher salary in our midwest district is 72k, which I think is fair for a Master's educated teacher, but since so many other industries have placed salary freezes, teachers should not be immune to it. Other proposed cuts: gifted classes.

We will have play to pay in high school and middle school. This year we paid about $25 per activity, and the most expensive (football) would be $125 next year. Cheap compared to dance classes and flute lessons we pay privately.

That seems quite high for a 180 day school year. $25/day per kid assuming a 180-day year (as I'm sure you've already realized). I'd probably want to get a group of 4 bright kids together and pay a skilled mom with older kids (who are in school until 3 and can make it home on their own) to teach them a language or art or an instrument or a sport or do math supplementation. For $500/week tax free you could EASILY find someone quite skilled to work with 4 kindergarteners for 3 hours/day.

Maybe you could organize a coop and not pay anything? Could you get one afternoon off per week to teach something you are really good at? And find 4 other moms willing to do that same? That might be quite rewarding. I mean, $8.33/hour PER CHILD for what's probably playgroup with teacher's aids seems like a bad value.

If they have staff ration of 10:1 they are basically charging over $80.00/hour for each staff member (I'm assuming staffing is the main cost and other expenses are pretty incidental)

Seriously, is my math wrong? This seems like a no-brainer to me.

In my area they are talking about cutting transportation to our Gifted and Talented programs. The programs would still run, but if you wanted your child to go to a center based G/T program, parents would have to arrange transportation. This would be for upper elementary, middle and high school programs.

We will have a board meeting Monday and I think the whole city will be there. Our preschool is rallying to keep the after school program going, which requires transportation. The district published in our local newspaper how they have record enrollment in the all day kindergarten this year. What they did not mention is that kindergarten enrollment overall is down 30%. So working parents found all day kindergarten options elsewhere as well as were forced to pay 4.5k tuition in the public school once the private schools filled up. I am not sure what we will do yet, but a decision has to be made after the meeting I'm sure.