Against the advice from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, some states are shutting down their summer school programs in efforts to decrease state budget deficits. Florida, Washington, North Carolina, Delaware, and California are just a few states to participate in these budget cuts.
Many state officials say after receiving federal stimulus money, they still had to make serious cuts to school budgets, but Duncan continues to urge states to use part of the federal stimulus money to keep summer school programs open. State officials in Florida and California have ignored Duncan’s urges completely and have used the federal stimulus dollars elsewhere.
Many other states officials feel that summer school programs aren’t making a huge impact in closing the achievement gap amongst students despite research showing it can narrow the achievement gap between poor and wealthy students. But, there are many other school districts who have used federal stimulus money for summer school programs. Larger school districts in Seattle, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Boston and Minneapolis have yet to do away with summer school and have used part of their federal stimulus funds for summer school programs.
Other school districts in Montgomery County, MD and Cincinnati, Ohio have used some of their federal stimulus money to revitalize their summer school programs. They have used about $1.5 million of their stimulus funds to provide full-day summer school. The classes are being held at their 13-lowest performing elementary schools which has doubled enrollment to nearly 1,700 pupils.
The on-going struggle still continues for state officials, as they try to figure out the best way to minimize education budget deficits, hopefully keeping students in mind as they make these important decisions.
