Local Schools Concerned About Long Term Damage From Fiscal Cliff Cuts

Waskom ISD Officials say they are prepared for budget cuts

Author: Keristen Holmes
Published On: Dec 18 2012 05:26:52 PM CST   Updated On: Dec 18 2012 08:20:04 PM CST

Texas school officials who are already battling to get more money for education say that there will be long term damage from fiscal cliff cuts.

School officials say the loss of more than 500 million dollars in federal funding, that's in jeopardy with fiscal cliff spending cuts, could be detrimental to education.

"For school districts out there that are in financial trouble, living year to year, or month to month with financial expenditures, it'll be pretty devastating to them," Waskom ISD Superintendent, Jimmy Cox said. 

Although the fiscal cliff is looming over a lot of Texas schools, Cox says, Waskom will be fine if a federal budget deal isn't reached.

"We've done a lot of things previously, before this past couple of years to kind of prepare ourselves for this downtime as far as finances are concerned. It would effect our funding but not drastically."

Potential cuts could mean more than $517 million dollars, which is used for things like special education needs, preschool and head start grants, as well as making sure low income kids get a good education, could be gone from Texas education funds.

In Waskom, Cox says the cuts wouldn't affect them that much because they were prepared for lean years.

"We're probably talking about losing $75,000 dollars on an annual budget of $8 million dollars. So not a devastating thing."

Although they don't stand to lose much, Cox says any school budget cut will be felt.

"We want to do a good job and again, money is an issue, and you cant do those things without money."

Federal grants for special education are set to be cut by more than $80 million dollars in Texas if a deal isn't reached.

Another one of the federal funds in question are Title 1 Grants.

Title 1 Grants are designed to help disadvantaged students meet academic standards. Those funds are set to be cut by a little more than $114 million dollars in Texas.

According to the National Education Association, that loss would affect more than 271,000 students across the Texas.