Fox8 has a report on Garfield Heights School District which has made drastic cuts to programs, teachers, the school day, and eliminated lunch.
Fox8:
...As of Tuesday, programs like elementary music, art and physical education are gone and libraries are closed.
School days are shortened to just 5 1/2 hours -- leaving kids less time for instruction, and working parents scrambling....
School days are shortened to just 5 1/2 hours -- leaving kids less time for instruction, and working parents scrambling....
....Kids who qualify for free lunches were sent home Tuesday with a bologna sandwich, an apple and a pickle....
New School Hours Start January 17, 2012
New school times are listed below:
| Elmwood and William Foster Elementary | 8:10 a.m. – 1:40 p.m. |
| Morning Kindergarten & Preschool | 8:10 a.m. – 10:50a.m. |
| Afternoon Kindergarten & Preschool | 11:00 a.m. – 1:40 p.m. |
| Maple Leaf Intermediate | 7:40 a.m. - 1:10 p.m. |
| Middle School | 7:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. |
| High School | 7:42 a.m. - 1:40 p.m. |
The Garfield Heights School District has been unable to pass a school levy for many, many years. These types of cuts have happened over the years in many Ohio school districts because elected officials refuse to take on school funding. Gov. John Kasich did make major cuts in school funding in his budget.
The Republican controlled Ohio General Assembly has been too, too, too busy doing other things rather than solve school funding. The Republican agenda in Ohio has included a heart beat bill, more abortion restrictions, an attempt to end collective bargaining, selling Ohio's prisons, restructuring the Ohio Department of Development to follow Kasich's wishes, allowing guns in restaurants, refusing federal funding for a rail system, telling lies about Ohio's public employees, making cuts to Ohio's health programs for the poor and elderly, expanding charter school enrollment, cutting public education funds, cutting funds to cities/counties and local governments, etc.
While our state tax money keeps flowing to failing charter schools that serve a small percentage of Ohio's students, our public school children are losing out because the GOP won't fix our school funding.