Making Reading, Writing and Recession Work Together A)With books tucked neatly on the shelves and a comfy purple-dragon rug in a back corner nook, the library at San Diegos Willard B. Hage Elementary School is the perfect place for children to fall in love with reading. Since the start of the school year, however, the library has been off limits to students, who get to go there only when(already overworked)teachers can escort them and handle the record keeping. "With all of the cutbacks weve had in the last few years, the district cant pay for someone to help check out books," explains Pam Wiesenberg, a third-grade teacher at the school. "As a result, the children suffer." B)As the national economy continues to nose dive, a growing number of public schools have found themselves facing similar situations — and making more and more painful cutbacks. Advanced Placement programmes, extra help for English learners, art, music and summer school could be on the chopping block in many places. Ditto(同上)for efforts to reduce class size. C)The huge federal stimulus package should offer some relief to desperate districts; the House and Senate are haggling over versions that include at least $80 billion for education programs, a significant bump up from the Education Departments $59 billion discretionary(自由裁量的)budget for fiscal 2008. But theres a catch: a big chunk of the stimulus money that is designed to prevent massive teacher layoffs will be awarded only to states that spend at least as much on education as they did in 2006 — a tall order given that a minimum of 42 states are facing significant budget gaps. At least 20 states have already cut their K-12 budgets. Moreover, even with the federal stimulus money, school districts will still get the bulk of their funding from state and local coffers, which havent been this low in decades. As Randall Moody, manager of federal advocacy for the National Education Association, says, "When you have 40 states with serious budget issues and thats where schools get the bulk of their money, naturally theres going to be a problem." D)Budget disasters are perhaps most acute in California. The state, the most populous in the US, spends about $48 billion a year on K-12 education, or nearly half its general fund, which receives revenue from a variety of sources, including income and sales taxes. This year, however, the double hits of endless layoffs and an imploding(剧减的)real estate market has ruined the fund, with legislators projecting a $42 billion deficit by the middle of next year. To help bridge this gap, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed shorting schools $2.1 billion during the rest of this academic year and $3.1 billion the next. He wants to save an additional $1.1 billion by reducing the number of school days, from 180 to 175. Though the extra time off might cheer students, California school superintendent Jack O. Connell strenuously opposes the move. Best sound bite: "To close the achievement gap and prepare all students for success in the competitive global economy, we should be offering more time in class, not less." E)Despite Congresss holding emergency weekend sessions to push through a stimulus plan, educators in many states lament the fact that schools wont see a penny of the extra money until at least July. According to O. Connell, some of Californias poorest districts are running out of cash for subsidised meal programmes. The Hayward district is planning layoffs that would increase class size in primary grades from 20 students to 32. In Lake Elsinore, schools have turned off the lights in many rooms — and placed duct tape over the switches — to save money on electricity bills. F)Terry Grier, superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, says his district needs a cash influx(流入)now. "There are schools in our district that dont even have nurses on certain days," says Grier, whose district includes Hage Elementary School and its shuttered stacks. "If a kid skins his elbow, a teacher has to take time out of her lesson to dust him off, clean him up and put on a Band Aid." G)California isnt the only state grappling with steep K-12 budget cuts. In Florida, officials in overcrowded school districts are bracing themselves for likely staff cuts. Connecticuts board of education adopted a budget resolution in December that included an overall 10% reduction — a move that some fear means that pink slips for teachers are inevitable. "The biggest line items in most school budgets are staff and benefits," says Bob Brewer, an education consultant in East Hartford, Conn. "No district can absorb those kinds of hits without trimming some of those big ticket items." Even oil and gas rich states are in a panic. In Alaska, for instance, sinking oil prices have some state legislators scrambling to lock in education budgets for the next few years as the state prepares to dip into its savings to cover a shortfall of approximately $1.65 billion this year and up to $3 billion next year. In Montana, which earned big bucks last year from its natural resources, education is funded primarily through property taxes, and many fear that the closing of mines and aluminum plants could trigger a mass exodus and redistribute the tax base. "It doesnt look good," says Eric Feaver, who heads the MEA MFT, a union of teachers and state employees. "People around here are starting to ask themselves what will happen if people leave." H)Where will those families go? And whose school districts can afford to absorb their children? In California, school officials are expecting to receive upwards of $8 billion over two years from the federal stimulus. While this money would enable districts to address some of their most pressing needs, John Mockler, an education funding specialist in Sacramento, says, "Its not a panacea(万灵药)." In the long term, Mockler says, states need to come up with new funding sources to support classroom instruction and let teachers do what they were hired to do — teach. In the meantime, some school district administrators have come up with creative solutions. Superintendent Jerry Vaughn of the Floydada Independent School District in Texas — which has 900 or so students — says he is working toward a partnership with a local wind power company that would pay for a laptop for every kid in grades 6 through 12. At the fast growing Forsyth County Schools District in Cum-ming, Ga., Bailey Mitchell, chief technology and information officer, recently opted to use free open source software instead of purchasing expensive software licenses from vendors like Microsoft. Mitchell says the decision will save $1.1 million over three years. "We sat back and recognized the money we needed simply wasnt going to materialize out of thin air," he says. I)Back in San Diego, at Hage Elementary, teachers desperate for help in the school library are recruiting parent volunteers to staff the facility a few days each week. Juli Finney, president of the schools Parent Teacher Association, admits that while this solution isnt ideal, it is precisely the kind of effort she and other parents must make to ensure that state budget cuts dont deny their children the chance to experience the thousands of books that are now quite literally behind closed doors. "Technically, the PTA is supposed to put icing on the cake and not provide the cake itself," she says. But when times are tough, some cake is better than no cake at all.There might not be enough taxes for school budgets if a lot of people leave Montana.

A big part of the federal stimulus money will go to states that spend on education no less than they did in 2006.

Sinking oil prices have led state legislators of Alaska to make adjustment on education budgets for the next few years.

According to Terry Grier, the number of school staffs has decreased because of lacking money in his district.

At San Diegos Hage Elementary, parents of the students are coming voluntarily to help staff the facility in the school library sometimes.

The students of Willard B. Hage Elementary School cant go to the library whenever they want to since the start of the school year, because there isnt enough budget to pay librarians.

In Juli Finneys opinion, Parent Teacher Associations help is just an emergency move.

According to California school superintendent Jack O. Connell, the measure of extending class time should be taken to bridge the achievement gap.

According to John Mockler, states should seek for new funding sources to make sure schools operate normally in the long term.