Extension Service Cuts Could Hurt Classrooms CHICAGO, IL (wqub) - To give you an example of what U-I Extension does, I drove to the West Englewood neighborhood on Chicago 's South Side.
There's a predominately African-American middle school there called Vernon Johns Community Academy .
And today, a group of sixth graders is dissecting rats.
AJIFOLOKUN: Now, here you find the heart and here are the lungs, OK? Then you open up this....
The library at Vernon Johns has been transformed into a hands-on science lab.
RHEE: *cough* Is that formaldehyde that I'm smelling?
AJIFOLOKUN: yes there is formaldehyde, the formaldehyde is used to preserve the rat.
That's Dr. Oyewole Ajifolokun.
Everyone calls him "Dr. Oyee".
He's a vet by profession, but he also teaches these kinds of classes through U-I Extension.
Dr. Oyee says the point is to encourage kids to pursue careers in medicine or science.
Athena Harden works in the library of Vernon Johns.
She's in charge of bringing people like Dr. Oyee into the school.
She says his classes have opened up possibilities in the minds of the students.
Harden says losing this kind of learning is going to have an impact.
HARDEN: It's very useful for our children, a lot of our children would not get this experience if there wasn't a University of Illinois Extension , and it will hurt our community, it will seriously hurt our community, if they didn't get the experience.
BUFFETT: It's just devastating.
That's Willene Buffett, director of U-I Extension's Cook County Unit.
In her 15 years with the program, she says the situation's never been this bad.
Buffett says the office normally gets a check from the state around November.
They're still waiting.
But because things are looking so dire, she's already laid off 25 support staffers.
That's out of a total of about 150 employees.
Buffett says she's working on a new budget for the first of next month, when, if the office doesn't get its funds, she'll have to lay off another 96 workers.
RHEE: You must be scrambling right now to figure out how you're going to pay all these people.
BUFFETT: Yes I am. Yes I am. And pay rent. And pay travel because our educators are continuing operating, they are continuing with their workshops and their programs with our schools, with our park districts. Everyone is trying to live up to their job.
And it's not just in Cook County where there could be cuts.
U-I Extension as a whole is looking at about 450 layoffs throughout the state.
A call to Governor Rod Blagojevich's office didn't produce many answers.
His director of Management and Budget, Ginger Ostro, says the state is running a 750-million dollar deficit this year.
OSTRO: Recognizing that we've had to really slow our spending because we simply don't have the revenues that were anticipated back in August when the budget was passed.
Lawmakers have been expressing frustration about the situation for the past week.
But unless something is done soon, there won't be programs left to vent about. © Copyright 2009, wqub