South Carolina needs to come up ways to further cut its education budget. Tuesday, members of a House Ways and Means subcommittee said one idea it's considering would be to eliminate the last five days of the school year. That could save more than $21million a day in salaries and transportation.
Other possible options include requiring high school students to take fewer courses in order to earn a diploma. South Carolina currently requires 24 credit hours.
State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said that all of the options are bad, but he knows they must be considered.
With these decisions, there isn't a single school district in the state that isn't affected.
The Georgetown County school board proposed staff furloughs and cuts to its "Gifted and Talented" summer programs in order to save $1.2 million.
That decision however doesn't sit well with many.
Doctor Timothy Carnahan of Waccamaw Intermediate School in Pawley’s Island said that in the 18 years he's been with the school system the $1.2 million cut is probably the biggest he's ever seen.
Carnahan said that makes him a little worried about the affect it will have on his teachers and students.
"Morale is a big issue when you start cutting days from teachers who already feel, over whelmed, and overworked," said Carnahan, “Once again it's going to be teachers working longer hours for less pay---bottom line."
These are all decisions that didn't sit too well with teacher, Kathy Hirsch.
Hirsch said that she keeps seeing her classroom getting bigger with the work load becoming heavier.
"It’s a growing area, we're going to get more students we know that, but there aren't more teachers to take more spots it's just the same teachers taking in more students," she said.
E'Lane Rutherford who has a 5th grader at the school said the last thing any parent should worry about is seeing their child's education being the first to take a hit when it comes to budget cuts.
“Its heart breaking,” said Rutherford, "The expectations that are placed on the public school system from the teachers to the administrators, and the staff are unreasonable."
"You can't get these years back, our kids cannot afford to have a down year in education, and we're going to do our best to make sure that doesn't happen,” explained Carnahan.
“The state really needs to look at how they are finding education, and maybe the sales tax was not the way to go for education."
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