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GHS Agriculture Teacher Worried About State Funding Cuts
A two percent decrease in the budget for the Illinois State Board of Education has a number of local educators concerned, including the Agriculture teacher at Galesburg High School.

Corrine Smith was one of a number of teachers who testified Tuesday in Springfield about the impact of the budget that was approved -- the $7.3 billion spending plan includes cuts in funding for ag, the arts, after-school programs, and others.

Smith told the ISBE ag education is crucial to an area like Galesburg.

"We have about 60 to 70 percent low socioeconomic students. Of those students right now, only three-quarters of those kids are graduating, so we're trying to do whatever we can to get these kids interested and staying with programs."

Smith says the numbers of people in her ag classes seem to keep increasing, something that she says wouldn't be the case if state funding weren't made available, along with continued increases in funding for technology.

She says the state provided her money several years ago for a classroom full of laptop computers, for instance, which she says has been a huge help.

I-S-B-E Chairman Jesse Ruiz says had the state properly funded education in its new budget, the cuts wouldn't have been necessary.
07 22 09 by Newsroom
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