43
Youngstown school board calls on Congress to avoid education cuts
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
The city school board approved a resolution urging Congress to amend the federal Budget Control Act to avoid cuts to education.
Lock P. Beachum Sr., school board president, said school board organizations across the country, including the Ohio School Boards Association and the Council of Urban Boards of Education, have urged local school boards to pass such resolutions.
Superintendent Connie Hathorn said every school district would lose federal education dollars.
Education is among the program cuts included in the fiscal cliff that’s imminent if members of Congress can’t reach agreement on the budget by year’s end.
The education cuts would affect Title I, teacher-quality state grades and programs for students with disabilities and at economic disadvantage.
Hathorn said the exact amount the city district would lose is unknown. It gets between $12 million and $15 million in federal money. The estimated cuts are about 8 percent or 9 percent.
In other business Tuesday night, board members heard from 1991 East High School graduate Lawrence Brownlee, now a professional opera singer who will star in Opera Western Reserve’s production of “The Barber of Seville” Friday at Stambaugh Auditorium.
Brownlee, who has performed throughout the world, said he’s concerned the district’s reshuffling of programs may not allow students the opportunities he had as a student to participate in the arts.
The district started a visual and performing arts school two years ago.
“Music was as important to me as science, math and computer skills,” Brownlee added.