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Pink Slips are starting to flow in school districts across the state as districts grapple with a five hundred and forty-two dollar per student cut come August. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, for many schools, it will mean fewer teachers and staff.

PE classes in most middle and elementary schools have already doubled. More kids are   being crammed into art and music, thanks to cuts in education over the last five years. Now districts are facing one point three billion less next year. This High school has already let six staff members go. Principal Rocky Hanna says seven more are on the chopping block. “Where as an educator do you draw the line. I’m pushing all these kids to take core classes, math and science on line, so they can take drama and art, and the classes they enjoy, elective classes here in school,” says Hanna.

Mark Pudlow says the same scenario is being repeated in districts across the state. “In Broward, they are talking about cutting 1400 positions. In Pasco County, a much smaller county, they are talking about cutting 500 positions.”

With an average of just over 550 students, this elementary school can expect to have about three hundred thousand dollars less next year. Governor Rick Scott defends the budget cuts saying districts should not have relied on Federal money that kept more than 20 thousand teachers employed last year. “I think like every family in this state, every business in this state, probably, Everybody is having to rethink how they do their job, and how they’ve tightened their belts” says Scott. “Our schools are doing the same thing.”

The end result will be larger non academic classes in August, fewer staff in the lunch room, and less supervision before and after school.

Other choices districts are considering include fewer bus routes or closing some schools. The cuts come as the amount of state money being diverted to private schools in increasing by 35 million dollars.