Budget Cuts on Track to Gut Public Instruction RENO, NV (KUNR) - School districts cut 4.5 percent from their budgets in December 2007, and now after the special legislative session, officials are looking for ways to trim 3.3 percent from their operating funds for the coming school year. And the worst is yet to come. Along with other state agencies, governor Gibbons has asked districts to prepare for 14.5 percent cuts for school years 2009 through 2011. The governor has taken an oath not to raise taxes, but Paul Dugan, superintendent of the Washoe County School District says eventually the state will need to find a way to better fund schools.

Dugan: How many times can you just keep saying we need to cut, we need to cut, and we're not going to look at additional revenue. This is clearly not just a step backward, but it could be a permanent step in reverse that will be very difficult to ever recover from.

Districts are just beginning to figure out what a 14.5 percent cut would mean. One result, superintendents say, is that the student to teacher ratio will go way beyond 22 to 1 now mandated by the state. Richard Stokes superintendent of the Carson City School District says angry parents could prompt action.

Stokes: Parents aren't going to go for it. I think that once these kinds of cuts are going to be made, I just don't believe the people of Nevada are going to allow these drastic changes to happen.

It's too early to say if a near 15 percent budget cut would mean teacher lay offs, though a hiring freeze of non classroom personnel is likely in many districts, in the short term and beyond.
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