- Grants to lead to further damage
- Posted By:
- Chris J
- Posted On:
- 18-Aug-2010
-
Earlier this year and the whole of last year was very trying for the American education system. Numerous teachers and other staff members belonging to district schools and private schools were asked to leave. These educational institutions then went on to plead for more grants to save them further damage.
In the recent past the government has granted a total of $10 billion in aid to schools across the nation. And the funny thing now is that the schools have gotten into a race to recruit new teachers right away. In fact they are higher at half the salary and the teachers who do not have a job, have no option but to take it up.
In many ways, the schools feel that by doing so, they can keep the layoffs coming up next year at bay. Plus they are planning to preserve the funds granted to them as well. However, problems still persist. Even though $ 10 billion is a huge amount, many states require a lot of money to salvage their issues individually; else they will have to continue in the haphazard manner like before.
LA, the largest city after New York, is also the second largest when it comes to district schools and they are going to face major deficits this year and in the coming year. Hence, they are trying every trick known to them to lessen the impact of the blow so that the effects are felt less the next year as well.
In this very state, at least 682 teachers were asked to leave along with a number of counsellors, with at least 2000 staff members of the schools. And now even with the grant money, the schools are not sure whether they can hire them back. Some are even contemplating on cutting down more staff members.
New York, on the other hand, seems to have come up with an innovative idea. They are not being given any raise or pay hikes. In this way they can retain the teaching staff members they already have but cannot hire anymore.
But New Jersey is in a dilemma. Almost 3000 teachers had to leave their jobs and by the time the federal aid reaches them, the schools will have to wait for further important decisions to be made based on the aid money.
Plus they do not even how much they can spend right away. Many are feeling the heat because once the aid money gets used up this year; they will have to resort to their old ways of raising funds. It is like the schools are stuck in a rut. They cannot salvage themselves.
The funds are a boon. But how long are they going to last? And is the government capable of granting such large amounts to the education system year after year? Is there no definitive method of saving the entire system so that the students, teachers, schools and the society as a whole do not have to suffer due to this?