Wake school board approves '08-'09 budget

Raleigh, N.C. — Nearly a month after it was forced to cut $39 million from its spending plan, the Wake County Board of Education unanimously approved its budget Tuesday for the school year.

The Board of Commissioners allotted the Wake County Public School System $319.2 million in its county budget for the 2008-2009 school year – nearly $36 million less than what the school board had requested.

Among items cut to accommodate the reduction were $543,600 in signing bonuses; $3.3 million for programs for academically gifted students; and $4.4 million for foreign language programs in elementary schools

The school system had asked for more than $355 million so that it could continue to provide its current level of services and programs for an estimated 6,000 additional students next school year, officials had said. About $25 million of that money would have gone to new education programs.

Although it did not get from the county what it had requested, the school system did get a 6 percent increase from the 2007-2008 school year allocation.

County money accounts for a third of the Wake school system's budget. The state supplies 61 percent, and the federal government provides 6 percent.

Those sources will bring the school system's budget to around $1 billion for the new fiscal year, which began July 1.

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I agree with NERaleigh. Bussing is killing everyone. Use the money for something else and let the children go to the nearest school to them. If parents want to send their kids to another school then they should be responsible for getting them there, not our tax dollars.

Illegals are not paying for their schooling. If someone is here illegally then they should have to pay $2,000 per year to send their kids to school. It is only fair that they pay their fair share of the costs of services to educate their children. Also, no ESL. They should speak english before they arrive in America. That is the language that is spoken here and we should no accomodate those that refuse to learn it before they come to our wonderful land.

Wake County Board of Education is a joke. Get rid of the fat and educate our children.

spartanpirate
July 16, 2008 12:00 p.m.

WOW! $170 just to park at the school! Heck I park in downtown Raleigh 12 months a year and only pay $120 per year!

Hevans1012
July 16, 2008 10:21 a.m.

And they raised the student parking fees to $170 per spot on top of that!! I would love to know what my high school will be doing with the $68,000 they generate in parking fees this year. Who tracks and is accountable for the parking fee money?

PTA mom
July 16, 2008 9:31 a.m.

"Everyone SAYS that education is important, but NOBODY wishes to pay for it! Sad, very sad. Let us save even more money."

First of all, your generalizations are an insult the hard-working families struggling to make ends meet as higher fuel prices, higher food prices, the highest overall inflation in 25 years cascades through the economy and yes, even higher taxes take more and more of a toll on their budgets. They, like many if not most Americans have had to cut back and trim their expenditures in order to tread water through the recession that this country is enduring.

In light of that, the Wake County School System seems completely unable to recognize this, unable to willingly trim their own expenditures and in fact comes across like whining know-it-alls when the people say that they cannot bear to pay more money to a system that seemingly has no self-discipline and compunction when it comes to reaching into the public's pockets for yet even more money.

charlesboyer
July 16, 2008 8:36 a.m.

This is a game that the school board is playing with the county commissioners. They always cut visible programs to use the media to play games with the public.

Until they make cuts in the fat in the administration office on Wake Forest Road, I will never believe that they are really making the needed cuts.

A way to save a significant amount of money is to end the socio-economic (race) based busing and go back to neighborhood schools. They could then apply this savings to truly educating the kids of Wake County.

DontLikeTheSocialistObama
July 16, 2008 8:21 a.m.