Budget Cut, a foreboding term? Yes and No. Yes, every year schools face the pressing decisions of what departments or what teachers to be dropped. This is no light matter. But with the current economic situation in all states of the US, it has merely become an annual routine. Like a fire drill taught as a ritual in elementary schools, the greater menace of experiencing the actual horror of estimated cuts loom overhead, reminded by newsletters and announcements of funding reduction. The drill brings forward a sense of urgency, but we have been so far well protected by the involved community and parents club who energetically advocate the protection of our school’s ranking. Nevertheless, we are still not fully immune to the devastating effects the recession that has already had a great effect on individuals across the entire nation. Public schools, are constantly under pressure of the nationwide deficit which is reflected as designated recourses for government funded establishments slowly dry up.

California is rarely known for holding a generally elite rank of public education. The honor usually gracefully falls into the hands of the many magnet schools found along the east coast, thus supplementing to the stereotype of the “East Coast”. Still, the state of California does maintain a number of school districts that are benefited by the town and community that it is surrounded by, whose competitive attitude and high achieving ambitions push the students in the district and therefore raise the rank of the
schools. Such a district in California is the Acalanes High School District. Students are driven to aim for the highest level in academics and athletics and thus the school provides the necessary academic courses so that the students are able to compete nationwide against the many other just as merited students to get into that highly acclaimed Ivy League. But with the annual budget scare, high schools in the Acalanes High School District are dropping popular classes and teachers here and there and limiting the choices of the student and limiting the variety that could prove the student’s ability and interests on his or her transcript. Mandatory courses such as English or Math are designated to a certain number of students per class to further economize number of classes and limits are placed on the course selection and thus the freedom a student has to pick an AP class that would further distinguish him or herself from any other student in the entire 50 states when applying for college is withheld. There can be no blame on anyone or anything, but I find it extremely exasperated when the time in which high school students live in now, has already produced an already most difficult environment which revolves around the one word “university” or the even more elusive phrase, “Ivy League”. California high school students in general are against even more odds, because California is such a largely populated states, the competition is greater in the already set logistic number the college has set to the admission of students from state according to size. The actual capacity of a student can now be even further incorrectly evaluated; instead of having the ability to skip prerequisites or take classes in the summer, we must all conform to the rigid parameters ,which the school budget places on the community.
Education is the main way to climb the ladder in this day and age. Our global community is based on business or science. The money spent to waste which is the cause of our trillion dollar debt in the US is taking away from the true and dire need to teach the youth who need to lead the global economy in the future. The more effectively the money is spent now, funding public schools across the nation will mean that the students will learn from the painful process we now experience as the recession and later on as adults, attempt to prevent another depression.