Another $75 million state budget shortfall?

If just 1-in-10 parents pull their kids out of private schools to save their family money it will cost the public schools  in South Carolina $75 million.

Families in South Carolina are tightening their budgets.

They are looking closely at their monthly spending, trying to find places to cut back.

Some parents with children in private schools are thinking seriously about pulling their kids out -even just for a year or two- and having them attend public schools.

While the average private school tuition is just $6,600.00 per student (or half of per-student spending at public schools) this can make a big impact in a family’s budget.

But the real fiscal impact of K-12 education transfers will be felt by the public schools -and the taxpayers who fund them.

Schools: money for consultants but not bus fuel?!

Despite an enormous $11,480 in average per student funding parents and teachers are worried.

Everyone is talking about budget cuts, and education bureaucrats with their hands buried in the state coffers are no exception. In fact, much noise has been made over schools without money to fuel school buses. Hints have even been made that some personnel could be let go if cuts are severe enough.

There are even threats of a four-day school weeks, leaving two-income families worried about which parent will have to skip out from work to watch the kids.

Education Department spin-master Jim Foster says of the cuts:

“When you have budget cuts this severe, it’s hard to avoid reducing the part of your budget where most of your money is spent, and 85% of a typical district’s budget is personnel.”

Jim Rex expressed his concerns as well:

“Right now I think we can protect students and their learning and the teacher’s positions,” State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex says. “If we talk about cuts in the future, I won’t be able to say that.”

The situation sounds desperate, and indeed it would be…if that were the whole truth.