Election pledge forgotten as states slash spending, reports Jon Marcus

American public schools, which were on the brink of receiving an unprecedented infusion of new funding, are suddenly facing major cuts as the US economy begins to sour and the competing cost of public safety soars.

Twenty-two of the 50 states have cut education spending since the terrorist attacks of September 11 as revenues are adjusted to reflect a dramatic drop in sales taxes and the rocketing security-related costs. Still more reductions are expected.

“In the first round of cuts, a lot of states said they weren’t going to touch education,” said Mike Griffith, policy analyst at the Education Commission of the States. “They’re seeing now that the problems were more severe than they anticipated, and they’re beginning to make budget cuts in education.”

This comes on top of likely reductions in the long-hailed federal education reform bill, which was President George W Bush’s top priority before the terrorist attacks. Proposed spending on the measure has already fallen from $32 billion to $23bn during ongoing congressional negotiations.

“Before this happened, education had finally become the leading priority for most legislatures,” Mr Griffith said. “We had probably the first presidential election ever in which the question was not whether we should spend more money on education, but how we should spend it.”

About 7 per cent of the cost of running American schools comes from the federal government, 50 per cent from the states, and 43 per cent from towns and cities. State funding depends largely on revenues from sales taxes, which decline when consumer spending falls.

Before September 11, while most states were spending more on schools than previously, a few states were already cutting back. Midwestern states that rely on manufacturing, for example, were in recession as early as the summer. After the attacks, states that rely on tourism - namely Florida, Hawaii, and Nevada were immediately affected. Next came oil-producing states including Texas, Oklahoma, and Alaska, thanks to a drop in oil prices.

“It was the domino effect,” Mr Griffith said.

Alabama cut school spending by 6 per cent. Georgia eliminated a school nurse programme. Iowa cancelled a programme to pay performance bonuses to teachers. Indiana delayed salary increases. In other states, initiatives to expand early education programmes and reduce class size were shelved.

“We’re starting to talk in a lot of other states about doing this kind of cutting,” Mr Griffith said. “And some of the states that have made initial cuts are now planning a second round.”

Two of the primary targets of the budget cutters are likely to be capital spending and school maintenance.

Many states, Mr Griffith said, “are hoping if this is temporary, then six months from now education will be back at the top of the priority list. But if it’s long-term, it’s going to take a long time to get back to where we were.”