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A tough reality is in the cards for educators. Already school districts have been saddled with difficult budget cuts and are facing the reality of more cuts ahead. It may take a few years for the levels of budget to go back to pre-recession time even if assuming the next year is going to show strong economic growth, says Arlington based American Association of School Administrators executive director Daniel Domenech. According to him the worst part is yet to come and schools are in for more layoffs and cuts.

Since the year 2008, at least 294,000 jobs have been lost including the field of higher education. In Keller, Texas, rather than cutting on the salaries, people were asked to follow the pay-for-the-ride transportation system.

California saw many districts cut down on music, drama and art programs. In Georgia, twenty days were taken off from pre-kindergarten classes. To save on utility and transportation costs, 120 districts nationwide, especially in rural areas have reduced school week to four days, says the National Conference of State Legislators. There are schools that have started cutting down on field trips, reducing the after school programs and charging fees to play sports.

National Association of Elementary School Principals President and a Principal in Parkston, S.D., Rob Monson says that training teachers and buying technology or even textbooks are put off by districts as they hardly have any other choice.

Visit the gym at Lancaster based Abraham Lincoln Middle School and thankfully you can still find boys wearing long athletic shorts and girls in ponytails dashing across, putting a temporary pause on their tennis game and motioning YMCA with their arms even as their village people’s song blares from the speakers.

Sadly, you cannot find this scenario in many schools that are facing teacher layoffs and budget cuts and cannot really do anything but cut library hours, PE classes, small literacy classes and Spanish for sixth and seventh graders.

Josh Keene is a worried principal who feels that very soon, maybe the very next year, we will find core subject class sizes jumping from 25 to 40. His district received $6 million less from the state this year. This forced them to cut down on staffs. At least six staff members were sent back.

Assuming that the scenario will remain the same this year, the district will still run short of $5 to $7 million with various other expenses looming large such as increased pension obligations. Keene is a scared principal who anticipates a great impact on core classroom positions with fewer non –classroom positions.

In order to save jobs of teachers recognizing reality faced by districts, $30 billion was included by our President in his $447 billion job creation package. This package was rejected by the senate as there are separate measures that address saving jobs of emergency responders and teachers.

According to Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader, this plan is similar to bailouts that only foster economic problems rather than addressing the actual issue.