WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-Recommended CMS budget would mean hundreds of teacher cuts

Recommended CMS budget would mean hundreds of teacher cuts

By Tom Roussey - bio l email

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - Mecklenburg county manager Harry Jones is recommending that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools receive $34 million dollars less than it did last year.

If county commissioners go along with Jones, that could mean the district will lose 450 teachers for next school year, and nearly 800 total jobs.  Assistant principal positions would likely be among those cut.

CMS's superintendent recommended a budget that uses $347 million in county taxpayer money.  But Jones recommends giving CMS $313 million, which is nearly 10% less than Gorman wants.

"This has been a tough decision all the way around," Jones told WBTV.

Jones said he's already recommending spending $38 million less in other county areas next year, including a big cut to social services, which among other things helps the poor and unemployed.

He said he would have had to cut another $34 million from those other county areas if he'd given CMS all it wanted.

"We could not make these reductions solely on the backs of county departments," Jones said.

The recommended cuts were not the news some CMS board members wanted to hear.

"It's not a happy picture," board member Tom Tate told WBTV.  "I'm concerned. I think we need to have smaller class sizes, not larger class sizes."

Tate has not given up hope of saving the teachers jobs, however.

"The wild card is the stimulus money," Tate said.  CMS still isn't sure how much federal money it will get from the economic stimulus bill the President signed earlier this year.

Republican county commissioner Bill James sent out an email Thursday night saying CMS shouldn't have to cut teachers even with the $34 million in cuts.

"Instead of 'firing teachers' they could stop the non-core mission nonsense they are known for," the email said.

James suggested cutting the pre-K program Bright Beginnings, which he says is duplicated by the state and has been shown to be ineffective.

A CMS spokesperson said superintendent Peter Gorman wasn't available to talk about the budget recommendations on Thursday.

County commissioners will have the final say on how much CMS's budget gets cut.