Here we go again. With last week’s adoption by a state House of Representatives committee of a slashed education budget, it looks as though Alabama is doing its traditional two step – one step forward, two steps back.Just when the state was beginning to make strides in education, it turns back. The state was providing funds for the Alabama Reading Initiative, starting to appropriate money for the Math, Science and Technology Initiative, upping its investment in distance learning and launching more pre-kindergarten programs.
Then the economy took a downturn and with it, the chances of public school students for better educational opportunities across Alabama have the potential to go down with it.
The scaled down budget cuts spending in the areas of buses, books, libraries, computers as well as reading, math, science, distance learning and pre-K.
While certainly not palatable, it may be OK in richer school districts that have the money to plug the gaps and provide the extras. But in poorer school systems, the gap continues to widen, leaving more students and more systems behind.
And that just isn’t right. This state must find a way to fully fund its educational system regardless of an economic slump. Just like a family budget planning for a rainy day, Alabama must plan, too.
Every time the economy heads south, lawmakers simply whip out a budget axe and hack away at the progress being made.
We have seen progress. Reading scores – the basis of learning – were continuing to climb. Opportunities to level the learning field between poor and rich school systems were rising. And the emphasis on a pre-K program for 4-year-olds had the potential to turn this state around in the years to come.
But the axe keeps swinging, and progressive strides lie in its wake. Lawmakers must find other means of cutting and put the investment back where it can do the most good. Allowing the cuts to stand as is will surely be a step in the wrong direction – perhaps two of them.
