NC schools may feel cut from state budget

An overall state budget shortfall could mean possible cuts in public schools.

Since Gov. Mike Easley ordered state agencies last month to return 5 percent of their budgets for fear of a deficit, schools have been wondering where they’ll have to make cuts themselves.

The Office of State Budget and Management is asking that local school districts and charter schools return a total of $117 million in previously allocated funds from all 115 school districts.

The schools normally return $59 million to the state each year in over-budgeted funds meant for things such as teacher salaries.

Vanessa Jeter, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, said school districts were told to expect this.

“This did not come out of the blue. The finance director has been communicating with school districts in the beginning of the year to let them know that reversions were a possibility and to be aware of that,” Jeter said.

The budget cut is flexible enough for individual schools to be able to decide where to make cuts, she said.

“State government is tightening its belt. Everybody in their economic lives is looking to respond appropriately to the situation that we’re in right now, and I think the state is trying to do that as well.”

It’s too early to determine what long-term impact the cuts could have because there isn’t much information yet, school officials said.

“We’re looking into the request, talking to state officials, as well as looking internally. But we don’t have enough information about this to say what will be cut at this point,” said Carmen Bray, spokeswoman for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

But the shortfall has been anticipated for awhile, said Mike Gilbert, spokesman for Orange County Schools.

“We’re not pleased by any stretch of the imagination, but we had anticipated that there would be revisions due to the decrease of funding available from taxation,” he said.

The school system will try to make cuts without affecting any academic programs, Gilbert said.

“No cuts have been made, not at this time, and we hope we won’t have to,” he said.

“We hope to cut everything outside of educational programs and keep it as far away from students as possible.”

Wake County will have to return about 5.5 million dollars, the most out of all the counties.

Vilma Berg, who has two children in a Wake County elementary school, said she hadn’t heard about the school budget cuts but that she is worried.

“I worry that it may be a cut across the border, like an umbrella cut,” she said.



Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.