Cash-strapped school districts in North Georgia fought hard for improvements in student achievement over the last few years and now struggle to keep state budget cuts from scuttling success.
"Funding cuts are undermining the progress we've made," said Dick Stidom, facilitator of Ridgeland High School's Career Center in Walker County.
Mr. Stidom said the jobs-oriented program at the school is hitting its stride in its second year.
The district has worked hard to keep training programs for teachers and performance-boosting programs for students, but "we're just hoping it doesn't stop," he said.
GEORGIA'S K-12 AUSTERITY CUTSAusterity cuts that originated in answer to the last economic downtown in the early 2000s have continued since 2003. Stimulus funding offset total cuts by about $1 billion.Fiscal Year Reduction2003: $134 million2004: $283 million2005: $332 million2006: $332 million2007: $169 million2008: $142 million2009: $495 million2010: $936 millionTotal: $2.82 billionSource: Georgia School Superintendents Association and the Georgia Parent Teachers Association
In Walker County, one of several North Georgia systems that kept graduation coaches despite state cuts, officials say graduation rates increased 10 percent over the last five years and student achievement under the No Child Left Behind Act continues to improve.
Ridgeland graduation coach Jason McKinney worries continued state cuts will threaten some hard-won gains made by Walker and other North Georgia districts.
Ridgeland had a 47 percent graduation rate five years ago, and this year "we're looking at about 70 percent," Mr. McKinney said. "We have really have made a lot of gains here, and a lot of that's been due to the extra programs we've put in place."
If cuts continue, positive results "are going to start suffering," he said.
State funding cuts combine with almost $2 billion in austerity cuts since 2003 and the Quality Basic Education program has been underfunded ever since the 1980s, according to Georgia Association of Educators President Jeff Hubbard.
Stimulus funding offset austerity cuts by almost $1 billion, or the situation would have been "much, much worse," he said.
As this year's budget ax fell, some systems lost central office staff, others saved teaching jobs by cutting graduation coaches and systems elsewhere did both.
Now, all districts are preparing for more furlough days, shorter funding and larger classes as revenues continue to dwindle, officials said.
Whitfield County cut all nine of its graduation coaches to hold onto teacher jobs amid an $8.6 million funding plunge last year.
A leadership group of more than a dozen Whitfield educators called on school board members last week to seek a new superintendent who will adopt the system's evolving project-based learning approach to teaching -- a method in which students work together on projects applied to real-world situations -- and professional development efforts while keeping spending in check.
Current Superintendent Katie Brochu announced in March that she is leaving for a job in South Carolina.
Whitfield officials credit the new approach and systemwide teacher collaboration with raising achievement and graduation rates while reducing the county's millage rate.
But funding cuts and a change in philosophy could cause progress to falter, members of the group said.
In Catoosa County, Superintendent Denia Reese said graduation coaches helped her system raise graduation rates by 16 percent since 2004 and steadily increased the number of schools making adequate yearly progress.
Mrs. Reese said improved graduation rates can be traced to a "graduation task force" formed in 2006 that focused students on getting their diploma.
"We determined barriers that were preventing our students from graduating, and we eliminated these barriers," she said. "We researched programs that could help students succeed, and the graduation task force developed a plan."
Mrs. Reese didn't say state cuts have punched holes in the ship, but "with declining state funding, it is even more important that we are using our financial resources effectively," she said.
Ridgeland freshman Cory Thompson said programs that get students ready for college and careers are important for the future.
The Career Center helped Cory, 14, get a summer job at Lake Winnepesaukah Amusement Park in nearby Catoosa County.
"I made my resume here. I was able to get on the Web site to print off the application here at school," Cory said.
"I'm afraid that if they cut (funding) too much, then the proper education wouldn't be fed out to the young people," he said.