Phila. School District in Major Budget Crisis - 1,300 Jobs Disappearing from Fed cuts alone

[JPZenger]

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130328_The_Philadelphia_School_Districts_gaping_budget_hole.html

"the Philadelphia School District must now find ways to plug a hole of as much as $304 million next year. Its current gap-filling plan requires $120 million in new money from the state (good luck with that), $60 million in new city funding, and paycuts of roughly 10 percent from all employees, including teachers and other unionized workers.

At the same time, a 29 percent loss to the district's federal grants budget - a separate pool of money from the operating budget - will impact the district's neediest students, and could mean the loss of 1,300 school-based jobs.

But those sacrifices come on top of multiple years of deep losses - hundreds of millions slashed from school budgets, with cuts to nursing and counseling staffs, athletics, music and arts.

In the past 18 months, the School Reform Commission has also ordered more than 30 schools shut, and will soon vote on two more closings. The district's lowest-paid workers agreed to millions in givebacks. The central office staff was cut nearly in half."