Cambridge Schools May Face $4.2 Million in Cuts

This year Cambridge will spend $3000 more than the state average on every student enrolled in the city's schools. While the city has so far been able to maintain that level of spending despite cutbacks in local aid, the moribund economy and state-wide belt tightening may slice into the next school budget.

The city's schools may face cuts totalling more than $4.5 million dollars, and that means some of the educational programs that have made Cambridge's one of the best school systems in the state will have to be rolled back, say school and city officials.

Under the education reform bill recently proposed by Gov. William F. Weld '66, the state's schools would receive an additional appropriation of $200 million.

But Cambridge probably will not see much, if any, of that money, according to School Committee Member James J. Rafferty.

"Weld has a new emergency allotment for education that we wouldn't qualify for," Rafferty says. The money will go to schools with a low cost-per-pupil ratio of "4000 dollars or less," according to Rafferty.

The plan provides for a leveling off of state funding that will give Cambridge the same amount of local aid it received last year. Rafferty said this money will translate into about a 2 percent increase in financial aid this year for Cambridge schools.

But before Weld released his proposal, the city tentatively formulated its school budget, estimating that state aid would increase to more than 6 percent. And with the deepening recession cutting into other sources of revenue--mainly property taxes--Cambridge schools need that extra 4 percent denied them by the Weld bill, according to Rafferty.

"We have to get rid of $4.5 million in the budget," Rafferty said. "The challenge is to make it as least destructive as possible."

Cuts appear to be inevitable, and personnel--teachers, maintenance and administrative positions--who receive 78 per cent of school funding, are the most likely targets, according to Rafferty.

"Teachers' salaries are high," said David R. Holland of the city's budget office. "They're certainly in the highest group [in the state.]"

Albert H. Giroux, director of public information at the school superintendent's office, said the wide array of special programs in the city's school system require a large faculty--and that increases costs.

"Every time you introduce a new program you introduce a new cost," Giroux says.

The elementary schools have four different specialized curricula, and the high schools have eight. The manifold programs and diverse curriculum have made Cambridge one of the leading school districts in the country, Giroux said.

"We have a computer education program that teaches even kindergarteners to learn basic programming," he said. At the high school level, different curricula focus on students' interests--such as leadership, business or career training.

But Jackson C. Hall, chief-of-staff for Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72, said some of these programs may have to go, and that "the mayor and the school committee have been working on the most cost-effective way to save money."

Whittling away $4.5 million from the school district's $71.5 million budget seems to be the only solution. The property tax rate sits at an unchangeable 2.5 percent, leaving only hotel and motel taxes as the only base for increased revenue.

But officials said increasing taxes are not on the horizon. "We don't have any way of raising $4.5 million dollars," Rafferty says.

School and city officials have generally accepted the inevitability of spending cuts for schools as a result of Weld's plan, but have also expressed resounding disapproval at the financial aspects of the plan.

"The problem here is that the reform movement is basically focusing in on those communities having financial problems with education and which are not meeting basic standards," Giroux says.

"We feel we're being punished because we've taken the leading edge on programs and are paying more," he adds.

Both Giroux and Hall say they think Cambridge deserves additional state aid to maintain the school system's present financial level and educational offerings.

The city's cost-per-pupil ration ranked third in the state in 1989, the last time a survey of such costs was taken.

Officials in the mayor's office strongly dispute any notion that they are spending too much, stressing that education is and always has been of prime importance to the city.

"I don't think that we're spending too much, but that doesn't mean that we won't make cuts," Hall said.

Cambridge's high level spending has had a direct impact on the school's boosting standardized scores across the board, Giroux says.

"We have basically bucked the trend," he said. "We've increased [SAT scores] by 17 percent, where other schools have dropped."

Giroux also pointed to a 70 per cent increase in Basic Skills Test scores since 1981 as evidence of educational progress.

The financial constraints on education may hinder Cambridge's nationally ranked school system, but city and school leaders foresee no change in the fiscal allocation for education.

According to Hall, the formula for success is simple: "We pay more and we get more."