BSGE’s Pockets Almost Empty?

Everyday at BSGE, you are guaranteed to hear at least a couple of complaints about the school. Those about not having a proper gym, the over-crowded hallways and just about everything else. No one seems to take the time to understand, in between their clouds of complaints that it is not that simple to acquire these things. BSGE doesn’t even hired a full-time Assistant Principal. Why?
Lack of sufficient funding.
The effects of the most recent deficit are evident around school. For example, some of you may have heard the rumors around school that there is a new AP and have been wondering what happened to our old AP, Yvette Rivera.
Well, this is a direct effect of BSGE’s lack of funding. We did not have enough funding to keep on paying an AP, as well as pay for loads of other things. So currently BSGE has, in the words of Ms. Johnson, “been loaned” an Assistant Principal. This AP has all the qualifications to be in that position. However, the new AP, Ines Loveres is not being paid by BSGE. She is being paid by the Deparmtne of Education. So BSGE is saving money from the budget to spend on other things that it needs.
Recently though, school budgets have actually been restored to that of June 2007. But the problem is that prices have inflated. BSGE, as a school, can’t do as many things with the June 2007 budget as did then.
So where does all the BSGE funding go then?
You’d be surprised at the amount of money it takes to keep the IB program running. Last year, BSGE spent a total of $48,000 from the school budget to pay for the IB exams and the IB “membership fee.” The amount of money spent on IB is so high that it is obvious why most IB schools are privatized, unlike BSGE. BSGE is actually the first ever IB school in New York that is public and offers IB to all of its students.
Since BSGE is a public school, students don’t have to pay anything to take the IB exams. This puts the weight of IB on the already miniscule school budget. But currently, parents are being encouraged to contribute so that the funding that would originally have been spent on the IB tests could be “used on other things such as the paper the faculty and the students use unceasingly,” as said by Ms. Johnson.
The question remains, however: Will there ever be enough funding for all the things we all want to see in BSGE? As Ms. Johnson explained it, schools are funded by taxes, as well as money from the state and city. Currently, so many people are losing their jobs and so many businesses are closing down that it seems really unlikely that funding will increase any time soon. Especially considering our country has just had the biggest economic crash since the Great Depression.
So, if you are hoping that in your years at BSGE, there will be a major change in the facilities or in anything that cost lots of money, don’t bet on it. BSGE won’t be seeing more wealth anytime soon.