It's not pretty. At this week's SRC meeting, Budget Director Mike Masch said the District received $180 million less than they had expected from the state budget, with a total shortfall of $197 million. (Read the latest budget news at the Philadelphia Public School Notebook here.)

What's that mean for schools?
 
Remarkably, the District says most schools won't feel the pinch. Class sizes will still be reduced for every K-3 classroom and the district will keep more counselors and ELL teachers. District officials also said leveling occurred without forcing split grades or significant personnel losses from schools.
 
However, every school will see about a less than 1% reduction in their budgets - around $4 million. Few details yet on exactly what that means for schools.
 
While the District promises minimal impact this current year, there are growing concerns about the District's future budget situation. Recent history has shown why parents need to remain vigilant about school budgets. During a time when the District's budget grew to unprecedented numbers, the average district school experienced steady losses in funding and personnel. Many of our schools have yet to recover from losses of teaching personnel, aides, programs and discretionary spending.
 
We believe parents must get organized in order to demand improved spending for schools. For example, the $4 million which will come out of our schools is less than what the District is paying 80 workers from the Bureau of Revision of Taxes, whom they don't hire, don't supervise and don't audit. Our kids - their politics.
 
We'll continue to keep you up to date on these developments but we need your voices too. Information is only useful if it leads to collective action that benefits all our schools. So join our mailing list, come to a meeting, talk to other parents from other schools, and make a phone call or two to City Council this week to help cover that $4 million (See story below). It counts.