BOE: Funding woes impede delivery of quality education

The State Board of Education is getting ready this week to hoist its final Fiscal Year 2002 budget proposal, adamantly seeking for government support to keep classroom doors open to an increasing number of kindergarten to 12th grade students in public schools.

While the Public School System is equipped to accommodate local students inside its newly-renovated and additional educational infrastructures built during the last three years, the autonomous agency now finds itself grappling for certified teachers to facilitate classroom instruction.

Persistent funding deficiencies have unsurprisingly been pinned as the major drawback in the public education sector’s inability to provide students with educational services they duly deserve, according to BOE.

During the last two years, PSS saw the completion of close to 80 new classrooms that have served the needs of at least 320 additional students.

But while PSS facilities have been upgraded and regularly added on to, BOE chair Anthony Pellegrino pointed out the irony of not having enough qualified teachers to steer classroom discussions inside them.

“Three years ago, we had a shortage of classrooms. But thanks to efforts of the Legislature, the Governor, the board, and other entities, we produced the needed facilities. But we lack the teachers and money to hire more,” said Mr. Pellegrino.

“We see constant increase in student enrollment and yet our budget goes down. There’s an inverse proportion between our needs versus the appropriation that is granted us, instead of going concurrently,” he added.

The board has been scouring for various alternatives to address difficulties brought about by the lack of funding, including freezing salaries of PSS personnel and a cutdown on its full time equivalents.

For one, the school system’s Special Education program which is supposed to fill some 30 staff positions is missing 18 personnel in lieu of funds to hire and maintain them.

“And yet our children deserve to get special education teachers. We want to get these teachers. But we’re out of money. Everything is driven by economics,” Mr. Pellegrino said.

Possibilities of shortening class hours from five to two and a half hours a day and increasing class sizes are two of several alternatives school officials are mulling over.

“We’re trying to find some alternatives. But at the same time, we have been trying to reduce our class size from 25-30 students to 18-20,” said the BOE chair.