What Does Another Round Of Proration Mean For My Child?

Alabama Mobile Governor Riley announces more across-the-board cuts.

by Steve Alexander

Published: Tue, September 29, 2009 - 9:19 pm CST Last Updated: Tue, September 29, 2009 - 9:46 pm CST

MOBILE, Alabama - The recession is forcing more education cuts for local school systems.
Alabama Governor Bob Riley announced Tuesday the new state education budget that takes effect Thursday is being cut seven and a half percent.
But those cuts mean different things in Baldwin and Mobile Counties.
Baldwin County Public School Spokesperson Terry Wilhite said, "We're already bleeding. This takes it to just unimaginable levels."
As far as dealing with the cuts, Wilhite said, "Its too early to tell how the school board will tackle an additional $7.5 million in proration. Its just uncharted territory."
Wilhite said the Baldwin County School Board will have to decide whether to ask county or state officials for more money, or make more cuts.
But if more cuts are made, Wilhite said, "At this point, when you hear this devastating news, there's only thing you can do, and that's cut personnel."
As for the Mobile County Public School System, Spokesperson Nancy Pierce said, "We had thought between six and eight and a half percent proration would be coming, It was seven and a half, so its in the ballpark of what we were figuring."
So what does that mean?
Pierce said, "We are not cutting any employees. There will be no reduction in funds."
Is it a case of different challenges for different school systems?
When asked if the Baldwin School System and school board members could have done a better job of planning, Wilhite said, "We didn't get economic stimulus money to the degree that some systems did. We only received $23 million, which is a whopping sum, but our monthly payroll is $16 million, so, you can do the math and tell stimulus money didn't do the trick."
The new proration announcement came just two days before Baldwin School officials will cut more than 200 employees to make up for a $75 million shortfall they were already facing.

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claycitymadness Says:

Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 1:54 pm

why dont they prorate the general fund?

framkly Says:

Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 11:51 am

Sell the ABC stores to the private. Keep the wholesale division, mark-up and taxes. Cut the state overhead and get rid of the ABC board enforcement, they are killing small businesses and give our state a bad reputation. The return will be more than enough to fund the schools.

claycitymadness Says:

Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 11:48 am

i agree suzanne, . its one of the reasons we wont approve additinal funding for them. something is going on all over baldwin governments. its rampand with fraud and corruption. look at fairhopes dilemma.

suzanne45 Says:

Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 6:21 am

Also, there’s obviously management problems overall. HOW STUPID is it to send out memos to parents 2 days beforehand about bus route changes???!!! Do they not think that quite possibly the parents of these children have jobs and may need to make adjustments for their child?? Who can plan for that 2 freaking days beforehand??? These people are idiots. Mobile is looking better and better.

suzanne45 Says:

Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 4:55 am

Baldwin County parents should be angry. I know I am. I know there are several issues involved, but there is obviously mismanagement of funds going on here. Someone needs to investigate.