Despite knowing that they will not be paid salaries, teachers of Buena Vista school district in Michigan are determined to go ahead and finish the academic year.
District administrators told the teachers that they had ran out of money and would not be able to pay them after mid-May. But, the teachers said that they will continue teaching children till the end of the academic year i.e. June 23rd 2013.
Joe Ann Nash, president of the teacher's union said they will "stick together" and that students were sympathetic towards the problem. "They told me, wherever we go, they're going to go with me," she said. "They're sweet."
Nestled in central Michigan, Buena Vista - a town dominated by blacks, has been facing several issues for many years. The major problems are loss of students, low test scores and growing budget deficit issues, which the town is unable to overcome.
Post-recession, the education system in the country has been majorly hit. Class sizes have increased, teachers have been terminated from their jobs and extra-curricular activities have been completely removed. However, some districts overcame these problems by eliminating few sports and clubs activities and consolidating. But, the problem seems to be never ending for Buena Vista.
"There were a lot of teacher layoffs. State and local governments got hit badly on the revenue side," said Michael Podgursky, an economics professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia who specializes in school finance. "They're down to only 471 students."
Nash said that they knew that the decrease in student strength would lead to such a problem. "We've said for two years now that we need to consolidate," she said. "We have less than 500 students and two of our buildings can hold more. It's a tough decision, but it should have been made long before now. We've been cut to the bone."
To meet rising costs consolidation of school has been one of the many ways adopted especially in rural and smaller districts.
According to Federal statistics in 1939-40 there were 117,108 school districts . In 2010-2011, the number had come down to 13,588, reports the Huffington Post.
The town reported the budget deficit to be around $55,000 in June 2011. A year later, the deficit alarmingly increased to $ 1 million. The deficit plan the district submitted to the state was turned down.
