7. School board members who met in Washington said that's a problem, because their costs are rising faster than inflation. Wage and benefit costs, which make up the bulk of school budgets, have been going up, along with energy prices.
8. The belt tightening also comes as schools face mounting pressure to boost student achievement under state initiatives and the federal No Child Left Behind Law, which sanctions schools that fail to raise scores and reduce learning gaps between minority and white students and low-income kids and wealthier ones.
9.
10. EVEN WEALTHY SCHOOL DISTRICTS ARE FEELING THE PINCH: In the booming northern Virginia county of Fairfax, school officials are contemplating cuts such as requiring students to pick up their own tabs for Advanced Placement tests.It's all a reversal from recent years, when home values in many parts of the country skyrocketed and schools pocketed extra money in property tax revenue.It's unclear how much property values could come down, and the timing could vary nationwide, since homes are reassessed on varying schedules."The watchword right now is wait and see," said Michael Griffith, a school finance analyst at the Education Commission of the States, based in Denver, Colo.
11.
12. Interview: INTERVIEW: ALEJANDRA LOPEZstudent from alameda high school. Has the economy affected how your school is now? Yes, because now classes are a lot bigger, teachers have been laid off. Which is a problem since teachers are being cut but the same number of students are still attending which just makes the classes bigger. That is a bad thing because I don’t seem to learn well in big classes and then the teacher does not have a lot of time to help you individually.
13.
14. Similar events took place in the East Bay and Southern California, in an effort coordinated throughout the state by faculty and students to express concerns about budget cuts.
15. Activities began at 1 p.m. as speakers addressed audiences in front of San Francisco City Hall.
16. Among the speakers was Steve Zeltzer, 60, of the United Public Workers for Action and lead organizer of the education protests.Demonstration against Education Budget Cuts in California
![school budget cuts ,[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)