City and county school systems in Orange County receive not only county funds, but state funds as well. With Governor Perdue kiting state finances by holding back on paying tax refunds, one can see how bad the current state economic conditions is. (Across the country, 2008 federal income tax revenues are down 34% from 2007.)
The ripple effect continues. With state tax revenues reduced, state funding of school systems must be reduced. According to Dr. Neil Pedersen, city school superintendent, state budget cutbacks could cost the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools about 100 positions.
So how many teachers in classrooms may be cut?
Interesting question, perhaps the Pulp should review some of the current city school numbers. For this school year, the student population is 11,389. Teaching those students in the classroom are 616 teachers, or about 18 students per teacher. Supporting those classroom teachers are an additional 317 teachers, or about 1 other teacher per 2 classroom teachers. That total of 933 teachers spreads out over the 11,389 population at about 12 teachers per student.
How much “certified support staff backs up the teachers? According to the proposed 2009-2010 budget, the 933 teachers are backed up with 216 “certified support staff”. In turn, teachers and certified support staff are backed up with 630 “other staff”. That means that for each classroom teacher there are about 2 other school employees. It also means that for each teacher, there is another school employee.
| City School Staffing | Number | Per Student (Population 11,389) | Per Classroom Teacher |
| Classroom Teacher | 616 | ~18 | NA |
| Other Teachers | 317 | ~36 | 0.5 |
| Certified Support | 216 | ~53 | 0.3 |
| Other | 630 | ~18 | ~1 |
| Total | 1779 | ~6 | NA |
Pulpsters may also want to know that of the about $89,000,000 spent on teaching support and teachers in school, about $51,600,000 comes from the state and about $37,000,000 comes from the county tax revenues. How much does the city school system pay on administration? This year it’s about $37,000,000 or about 40% of the cost of teaching students and operating the schools.
Back to the question, of the 100 jobs due to be cut from state funding reductions, how many are teachers? According to Dr. Petersen, 48 will be teachers, 40 will be certified support staff (teaching assistants). That leaves a total of 12 administrative positions eliminated. Yes, the mighty administrators have only visited 12% of the proposed cuts on the vital school administration.
So what’s the hue and outcry from the city school administration? One of the city high schools (Chapel Hill High) may be left without a basketball coach!
In the inspiring words of the great administrator, Dr. Pedersen, ”Everyone recognizes that the General Assembly has difficult choices to make. The universities have the advantage of being able to raise tuition rates to help with their budget woes, while many local school districts like ours are faced with reductions in their local appropriations.”
Invoking images of hope and change, Dr. Pedersen continues, “In effect, [the state House cutting school funding] is going to benefit other sectors of the state government as well by reducing their cutbacks. President Obama and the Congress made it clear that these stabilization funds were to go to schools and universities to prevent the kind of layoffs that the House's budget would require.”
The answer? Why more taxes, of course! Dr. Pedersen “[knows] that increasing taxes is unpopular, but these cuts in education are too big of a step backward for a state that sees its future dependent upon quality educational systems.” (See the Chapel Hill Herald City School Cuts Story.)
