The cutback of millions of dollars on student education has spread discontent among parents, students, and teachers alike.
” I can’t believe that we used to have books in good condition and small class sizes. Now, some of the textbooks we have at school are falling apart and don’t even have covers,” said one student.
One of LAUSD’s main motto is to help students get a great education to be successful later on as an adult. But looking at the conditions nowdays, LAUSD has not been able to live up to their word.
“I am first of all really disappointed that LAUSD doesn’t seem to place great importance on student education.I feel that the LAUSD budget cuts are hurting the students that are part of LAUSD and also their education and future. I also think that LAUSD should put more effort into trying to benefit the district instead of just announcing ‘We have less money now’ and cutting teachers and reducing supplies,” said Shinyoung Park, a freshman at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES). She also expressed that students aren’t getting the level of education that they deserve. In her classrooms, there were clear evidence of what she meant–biology textbooks with missing pages, overcroweded classrooms, very old edition textbooks and less educational programs.
However, students don’t seem to be the only ones feeling this way. For example, in one of the history classrooms at LACES, there is a sign up that reads “Superintendant Deasy gets a raise, we get pink slips.” The number of teachers are decreasing and decreasing, while the number of overcrowed classrooms are increasing more and more. One student expressed,” It’s perfectly true, and it is unfair that someone else is getting rewarded while this is happening.”
However LAUSD seems to have realized the failure of its policies as well. Board president Mónica García said, “I want to express the sadness of approving a budget that has less dollars and does the best we can to serve children well in a difficult time, but does not really honor the promise of what we have said we want for our children.” But are they really doing the best they can?
