Save Schools in Need Now

DANIEL DOMENECH, Executive Director, American Association of Secondary Schools (AASA)

It does not appear likely that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will be reauthorized any time soon. Meanwhile, school systems throughout the nation are still incurring the huge, mostly unfunded, costs imposed by No Child Left Behind. With many district budgets already cut to the bones, there is concern as to what will happen when the stimulus dollars run out. Action is needed and it is needed now.

There is substantial evidence that supports the adverse impact of poverty on achievement levels in our schools. When results on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) are compared with the percentage of students on free and reduced lunch, the greater the number of students of poverty, the lower the student performance on the tests. The effect of poverty is so pervasive that even students that are not on free and reduced lunch tend to score lower when in a school with a high percentage of poor children.

Our current economic recession is a cause for great concern. Indications are that, with higher unemployment rates, a greater number of Americans will be pushed into deep poverty. This in turn will cause an increase in the number of children on free and reduced lunch and consequently, reductions in achievement levels and a growth in the achievement gap between the haves and have nots.

A study on the impact of the economic downturn on schools, conducted by the American Association of School Administrators, finds that belt-tightening measures are already underway in school systems around the country that threaten to directly impact the quality of education and potentially reverse the achievement gains made in recent years. As many as 48% of the respondents to the survey claim to have reduced staff-level hiring and 36% have increased class size. The purchase of instructional materials has also been reduced by 35% of the districts responding. Among the top actions that superintendents are considering is the cutting of programs such as afterschool and Saturday enrichment programs. Right here in the Washington DC area we have read about neighboring districts having to cut millions of dollars from their budgets and implementing deep cuts in programs and services.

These actions, taken together, will have an immediate impact on the quality of instruction offered in the majority of our schools and will have the most negative impact on schools with high percentages of students on free and reduced lunch. Even before the current economic downturn, the dropout rates and graduation percentages for Latino and African-American students were nothing to brag about. With dropouts twice as likely to be unemployed, three times more likely to live in poverty and eight times more likely to wind up in prison, any potential increase in their numbers must be seen as a huge crisis with significant impact not just for our schools but for our nation.

It is possible for the Secretary of Education to review certain rules and regulations pertaining to the implementation of NCLB and suspend them pending the reauthorization of the Act. Areas such as the 20% set aside for the provision of Supplementary Educational Services and flexibility in the requirement that every child in grades 3-8 be  tested every year in reading and math would produce needed reductions in operating costs.

Have a great weekend.