{"id":7386,"date":"2017-10-13T18:41:58","date_gmt":"2017-10-13T18:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=7386"},"modified":"2017-10-13T18:41:58","modified_gmt":"2017-10-13T18:41:58","slug":"study-examines-effect-of-funding-cuts-on-texas-schools-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=7386","title":{"rendered":"Study Examines Effect of Funding Cuts on Texas Schools, Students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A new study examines the effects that a $5 billion funding cut had on Texas school districts and their students over a five-year period. Photo: Raedle\/GettyImages<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Funding cuts by state lawmakers left a five-year, $5 billion hole in the budget for Texas public schools between 2011 and 2016.<\/p>\n

A new\u00a0University of Texas study<\/a>\u00a0analyzes the effect of those cuts, made because of state revenue shortfalls, which forced many districts to operate with less money despite a growing number of students.<\/p>\n

Michael Marder, a professor and co-author of the study at the UTeach Institute at UT, says although state spending is beginning to rebound, there is still a need to deal with the problems caused by the cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if funding returns to previous levels, a five-year period where it was underfunded leaves not just a five-year hole in the budget but a five-year hole in what students learned,\u201d he stresses. \u201cSo, they are going to be coming to the system having learned less than they might have otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marder says during that five-year period, the report shows that many districts were forced to cut class size, hire fewer teachers and limit non-core programs such as art, music and computer science.<\/p>\n

He says properly funded school districts are better able to attract and retain high quality teachers and provide a wider variety of courses.<\/p>\n

Marder points out the research shows that as the state begins to restore funding, the money is not always returned to the same programs to serve the same students.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccelerated instruction, which is for students who are struggling and need extra help, went down, particularly in schools with a lot of low-income students,\u201d he explains. \u201cFunding in the schools serving the lowest income students for bilingual education went down by as much as 40 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marder says restoring the funding does not always deal with the problems created by the five-year \u201cfunding hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe neediest students may still not be receiving the same level of support they did previously, and I think this is a matter of concern to every citizen of Texas who cares about fellow citizens and the future of the state,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n

Marder says the study is the first of its kind to analyze the academic and practical effects of budget cuts on students in Texas school districts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0Funding cuts by state lawmakers left a five-year, $5 billion hole in the budget for Texas public schools between 2011 and 2016. A new\u00a0University of Texas study\u00a0analyzes the effect of those cuts, made because of state revenue shortfalls, which forced many districts to operate with less money despite a growing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7388,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7386\/revisions\/7388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}