The situation is particularly ugly in California, where school districts are preparing for mass layoffs and swelling class sizes as the state grapples with another massive budget shortfall.
The crisis concerns parents like Michelle Parker in San Francisco, where the school district faces a $113 million budget deficit over next two years.
“I’m worried they’re not going to have the quality education that’s going to make them competitive in a global society,’’ said Parker, who has three children in district elementary schools.
Around the country, state governments are cutting money for schools as they grapple with huge budget gaps triggered by high unemployment, sluggish retail sales, and falling real estate prices.
A recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that 41 states face midyear budget shortfalls totaling $35 billion.
“The states are facing a dismal financial picture,’’ said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy.
The Obama administration’s $787 billion federal stimulus package provided about $100 billion for education, including $54 billion to stabilize state budgets. In October the White House said the stimulus created or saved 250,000 education jobs.
But many states have used most of their stimulus money, leaving little to cushion budget cuts in the coming fiscal year.
Advocates say the looming cuts could weaken the nation’s public schools, worsen unemployment, undermine the president’s education goals, and widen the achievement gap between students in rich and poor districts.
Wealthier communities are filling school budget gaps with local tax increases and aggressive fund-raising, but could worsen inequality and undermine the larger system for paying for public schools, said John Rogers, who heads the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.
In Michigan, which has the nation’s highest unemployment rate, school districts lost 2 percent of their state money this year and could lose 4 percent more next year because of a projected government shortfall of $1.6 billion. Most of more than $1 billion in federal stimulus money is gone.
