More headachesPainful S.C. budget cuts may extend to schools, law enforcement efforts Staff and wire reports
Friday, October 10, 2008
AP Specialist Justin Bohan holds his head as he works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday Oct. 9, 2008. Stocks plunged in the final minutes of trading Thursday, sending the Dow Jones industrials down more than 675 points, or more than 7 percent. Cutting high school sports, conservation efforts and crimes investigated by state law enforcement are all possibilities in the looming South Carolina budget crisis. Legislative leaders were negotiating on how to slash hundreds of millions from the state's $7 billion budget, following a move Wednesday by the state's economic advisers to cut revenue projections by a total of $554 million. State employees and advocates are anxiously waiting to see where the ax will fall. "None of the options are positive. They're going to be deep, and they're going to be severe," Paul Krohne, executive director of the state School Boards Association, said Thursday about how cuts will affect public schools. Many of the state's 85 districts already have depleted their reserves or saved all they can by not filling vacancies. Further cuts would force almost all to cut educational programs. Other ideas tossed around include cutting back on sports, holding four-day school weeks, asking employees to take days off without pay, and laying off non-certified employees such as teachers' aides and custodians, said Krohne, adding that teachers' contracts prevent them from being laid off midyear. Legislators have yet to set a date for when they'll return to Columbia to start cutting. They say it's likely to happen, if at all, within the next few weeks, before the election ends their terms and before a state deadline expires. The key is coming up with a draft first. Otherwise, lawmakers could hold up parts they disagree with and kill the entire effort, said Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell. Even with near-total agreement, the measure will take at least a week to get through both chambers, he said. Previous Story:State budget writers sharpening their knives, published 10/09/08 "If we can't reach a consensus, it's a waste of taxpayers' money," the Charleston Republican said Thursday, adding that raising taxes is out of the question. "This is easier said than done." If they can't agree, state law requires the Budget and Control Board to make across-the-board cuts for all agencies within three weeks of a revenue adjustment. The five-member board ordered such a 3 percent cut in August. The Legislature could let that stand, or undo it and find ways to save a total of 6 percent with targeted cuts, a moved Gov. Mark Sanford has urged. The Republican governor has asked agency leaders to submit lists to him by this evening with their suggestions on the least painful ways to weed their spending plans. As of Thursday, about 25 agencies had turned in their lists, said spokesman Joel Sawyer. The director of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said his agency will be forced to prioritize crimes and not respond to the lesser ones, such as arson. Beyond their own investigations, the agency assists local departments when asked. SLED's bloodhounds or helicopters are called almost daily to find suspects or missing adults, but now, if the case doesn't involve death or serious injury, the answer may be to "call a department closer to home," Reggie Lloyd said. But Lloyd won't let up on drugs or violent crimes. He cited a national report that consistently ranks South Carolina's violent crime rate as high. "We can't afford to give up on that fight," he said. Expanding a health insurance program for low-income children "is on the table along with everything else," including a pot of money for preserving land, said House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont. Sanford does want the Corrections Department spared. The agency already is running a $23 million deficit. It employs 1,500 fewer people than it did in 1999, before the last recession. Further cuts could mean closing prison schools or letting chaplains go, prisons director Jon Ozmint said. In North Charleston on Thursday, Sanford met with top officials from the state Education Department, First Steps, the Education Oversight Committee, the state charter school district and ETV to discuss the upcoming budget year and throw around ideas for ways to trim and improve spending. He will use the input as he crafts his budget recommendations, which will be presented in January. Most of the attention during the two-hour hearing focused on the Education Department because of its sheer size. Roughly half of the state budget goes to education. Jim Rex, state education superintendent, talked about the importance of ensuring the health of the system. Many of the state's public school students don't leave South Carolina, so what the state does with and for them will shape its future, he said. Although Rex said his budget recommendations for next year will continue critical, core programs, it deferred other important expenses, such as expanding early childhood education programs, addressing the teacher shortage and replacing old textbooks. Sanford had a group of educators and community leaders on hand to ask the top education officials about areas that could be ripe for change. Some of the topics discussed included: the state's specialty schools, such as Governor's Schools and Wil Lou Gray; the unique state-owned bus fleet; and the fragmentation of the delivery of pre-kindergarten programs. Some of the discussion inevitably turned to the immediate budget crisis, specifically that state spending must be cut by a total of 8 percent. Sanford said he will make the greatest effort to hold the Education Department, Corrections Department and Medicaid harmless in any cuts, but the burden on other state agencies would be too great to absorb without touching those areas. Rex said he's trying to come up with a coordinated approach within the education community about how to approach the cuts. He's talked with the state's teacher, superintendent and school board associations to come up with ideas that he said he hopes to submit by the end of next week. One potential idea is more flexibility in the way the state mandates certain money to be spent, he said. Seanna Adcox of The Associated Press and Diette Courrégé of The Post and Courier contributed to this story. |
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Comments
This article has 14 comment(s)
Posted by zekemire on October 10, 2008 at 8:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The first place to cut is the "pot of money for preserving land" that should not be a duty of government! They are currently through DNR buying land in Newberry and Laurens county from a paper company to "preserve" it for use of hunters, hikers, bird watchers, etc. This is not the role of government. We already have thousands of acres that the state owns such as the Webb center, the thoudans they just bought in the lower state and the Jocasse Gorges! Look at the 100's of millions that could be freed up by selling these properties! They could still be preserved by putting in a permanent conservation, no development easement on them! Just for the Newberry property alone they are paying upwards of $8 million! Again, this is not the legal duty of government!
Posted by CMLMADDOG on October 10, 2008 at 9:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Bake sale!
Posted by DanniD on October 10, 2008 at 9:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I hope that they do not plan on cutting things from school budgets such as sports, and have a 4 day school week instead of a 5 day. Take money from other places that are not as important, such as land perservation. How about cutting these butholes salaries, or other areas where they are spending too much money. I can't believe they would even suggest cutting back on the amount of school time.
Posted by summerville_guy on October 10, 2008 at 9:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
lol @ DOG... a bake sale sounds like a good idea to me!
Posted by iceman1978 on October 10, 2008 at 10:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Danni, I've always been an advocate of the four-day school week. Here's why:
-Students would be given one day to focus only on homework and study time for upcoming tests.
-Teachers would be given a day to do lesson plans and grade papers. (Many teachers will stay up late into the evenings on weekdays doing these things. An extra day would help them in this area.)
-One days worth of food will be saved.
-One days worth of fuel will be saved.
-The school day on Mon-Thur could be extended by 1.5 hours and kids would still spend the same amount of hours per week in the classroom.
-Utility bills would also drop since the schools could go into sleep mode for three days.
Posted by justmythoughts on October 10, 2008 at 10:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't cut anything. Just borrow the money from the Feds like Arnold wants to do for Calif.
JustMyThoughts....
and sarcasism :)
Posted by majorjohnson on October 10, 2008 at 10:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Heaven forbid they cut school sports! Don't these people understand how important school football is? Cut the math department instead. Since so few of our graduates can perform basic math anyway, no one would even notice.
Posted by southbel on October 10, 2008 at 11:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
You know, there is more to school sports than just football. I think, since I have a daughter, that school sports is important for her. I am a parent that wants my daughter to play a sport every season, every year. Why? Because it has been proven, again and again (and especially for girls) that sports teaches discipline, fair play, competitiveness (a good thing!), team work, and how to both win and lose gracefully. That being said, I do think we need to have better equality between the sports, but that's another issue.
I was fortunate in my youth to go to a school that required all students to play a sport each semester. Every student. This served in place of physical education. I thought it was a great program and quite frankly, it's great for the health of the children too. Of course, we do not have the budget to do this but we should give the children the opportunity to play.
Clearly, I am an advocate of sports. Of course, I am an equal advocate of academics. I think our school systems need to be either managed more efficiently or simply look to other departments to cut!
Posted by ChrisPia on October 10, 2008 at 12:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
1st in Violent Crimes,At The Bottom in Schooling and Our Elected officials want to Cut Law enforcement and Schools. Go Figure!
Posted by iceman1978 on October 10, 2008 at 12:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)
southbel, School sports also provides many children with an opportunity to go to college on a scholarship.
Posted by GreenvilleGirl on October 10, 2008 at 1:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I can't understand why the legislature is not already back in Columbia. It's not like this problem just popped up overnight. If there was EVER a time for these jerks to COME TO WORK for a change, the time is now.
When they finally DO return, we should go to the State House one day and sit in the gallery.....make sure it is full with wall to wall people. Not special interest groups, just people who are tired of the way our state government is treating its citizens!
This can't go on.
No way. No more. I'm sick of it.
Posted by forget on October 10, 2008 at 1:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
southbel, they may cut out some sports, but you can guarantee it won't be the boys baseball, basketball, or football. It will be the girls sports.
Posted by rehab123 on October 10, 2008 at 4:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Amazing that overpaid individuals are worried over this uncontrollable government spending, from working in different areas of our gov. funded operations, there is more money spent the wrong way and the individuals involve don't care. Just look back at the Carta bus system, there was and is still more misused money than meets the eye, and they receive their money from 80% of our federal funds, and 20% of our state and city funding along with fares and billboards. But they can afford to buy out every individual that owned a piece of property where the new building will be built when the one in use is good enough and has been paid for thanks to our utility company (SCE&G). Just think of other gov. funded areas, knowing waste money. I would bet if an outside consults came to all the funded areas of our state of SC, We all Would get a raise cause taxes could go back down, they would find so much misused money. I am glad the Governor is taking a stand. Go Mark
Posted by Hbaker on October 10, 2008 at 6:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
iceman1978 your post makes entirely too much sense.We have never had anyone in the executive ranks of government that could possibly think about running our school systems that efficiently.you only touched on a few things that could save tax payers money.I hope more of you back this idea and post more comments about the positive effects we would see from this