D.C. school budget: Parents, students decry cuts to high schools, librarians, special ed coordinators - D.C. Schools Insider - The Washington Post

D.C. school budget: Parents, students decry cuts to high schools, librarians, special ed coordinators - D.C. Schools Insider - The Washington Post: "Ways "

D.C. school budget: Parents, students decry cuts to high schools, librarians, special ed coordinators

By Bill Turque

The witness list ran nine pages for Wednesday’s D.C. Council hearing on Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s proposed FY 2013 education budget, testament to the volume of unmet needs--and programs at risk of cuts--in the city’s schools.

Gray’s proposed spending plan provides a 2 percent raise in the student funding formula, which amounts to about $86 million. But basic costs, including teachers salaries, have risen closer to 5 percent. The numbers triggered a long line of speakers describing the prospect of fewer teachers and diminished programs in their schools.

“I’m very concerned,” said D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown. “I just don’t understand just how we have better test scores, more students. more money going to the schools and less money going to the classrooms. I believe more money should go to the classrooms.”

The hearing was going strong into its seventh hour at 6 p.m. Officials