Cash-strapped school districts are considering deep staff reductions—an estimated 275,000 employees—in the 2010-11 school year, according to a survey scheduled to be released today by the American Association of School Administrators.
The organization, which is based in Arlington, Va., generated that estimate from a survey last month of 1,479 of its superintendents from 49 states.
More than half the respondents—53 percent—said they would freeze hiring next year. And 82 percent of the districts surveyed expect to eliminate education jobs in the next school year, just over half of them teacher jobs. The organization used the survey data from responding districts to extrapolate a national estimate of 275,000 potential job losses.
Noelle Ellerson, a policy analyst at AASA, said that the 275,000 job number is very similar to the 300,000 education jobs the Obama administration has estimated were saved by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic-stimulus program, which included up to $100 billion in education aid.
“All the cuts that were originally going to be made seem to be back in the queue,” she said.
The AASA and other organizations are trying to build congressional support for a bill that would provide $23 billion in additional aid to states to help thwart a significant cut in education jobs. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees education spending, is sponsoring the legislation. A bill containing similar language was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives late last year.
