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Effects of Revenue Caps
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Percent of Districts Reporting Cost Saving Measures During Each of Six Years from 1993-94 to 1997-98
In each of the revenue caps studies, superintendents have been asked to indicate the areas in which they made cuts during the previous school year. During the period, 1993-94 to 1997-98, the directions given were as follows:
Directions: Listed below are some areas in which school districts have taken action during the past five school years to comply with the state revenue caps. Indicate whether or not your district took action in any of the areas during the (previous) school year, which are a consequence of the revenue caps, by placing a check mark in the blank space.
In the current study, the wording of this question was changed in order to determine the impact of cuts on programs and services. The directions were as follows:
Directions: Listed below are some actions that school districts have taken to comply with the state revenue caps during the past school year. For each, circle one of the choices available. If your district took no action in 1998-99, circle "No Action." If your district took action, circle the number which best describes the effects: (1) "Very Negative,"(2) "Negative," (3) "No Difference," (4) "Positive," or (5) "Very Positive." If you don't know the effects, circle (6) for "DK" (Don't Know).
Because the directions given in 1998-99 were not exactly the same as those given in previous years, it is inadvisable to compare the 1998-99 results with those from the previous five years. The table that follows is for the period, 1993-94 through 1997-98.
| Percent of Districts Reporting Cost-Saving Measures During Each of Six Years from 1993-94 to 1997-98 | |||||
| 93-94 | 94-95 | 95-96 | 96-97 | 97-98 | |
| 1. Delaying building maintenance or improvement projects | NA | 51.3 | 49.3 | 50.2 | 48.9 |
| 2. Spending less for maintenance of buildings and grounds | 44.3 | 44.0 | 41.2 | 52.4 | 45.3 |
| 3. Spending less for improvements of buildings and grounds | 44.2 | 50.0 | 47.1 | 53.4 | 47.9 |
| 4. Delaying/reducing purchase of textbooks, curricular materials | 30.6 | 25.3 | 30.0 | 32.9 | 28.6 |
| 5. Limiting purchase of consumable supplies, such as paper | 28.8 | 23.2 | 25.2 | 26.4 | 22.2 |
| 6. Delaying/reducing purchase of computers, other technology | 43.9 | 43.7 | 57.7 | 60.9 | 44.1 |
| 7. Offering fewer staff development opportunities for teachers | 30.9 | 22.9 | 22.5 | 27.7 | 24..8 |
| 8. Teacher layoffs | 22.8 | 9.1 | 8.9 | 9.4 | 8.4 |
| 9. Layoffs of teacher aides or other support staff | 24.6 | 10.7 | 12.1 | 12.7 | 12.2 |
| 10. Administrator/supervisor layoffs | 10.1 | 4.0 | 5.3 | 5.9 | 5.5 |
| 11. Reducing counseling or similar services | 5.0 | 3.4 | 6.0 | 6.2 | 5.1 |
| 12. Delaying/reducing hiring of new staff | 34.4 | 28.7 | 35.2 | 41.4 | 35.4 |
| 13. Reducing extracurricular programs | 9.2 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 8.5 | 4.5 |
| 14. Limiting programs for students who are at risk | 13.4 | 11.9 | 18.5 | 19.9 | 15.1 |
| 15. Limiting programs for gifted and talented students | 19.0 | 15.6 | 22.3 | 26.4 | 19.3 |
| 16 Offering fewer courses | 15.4 | 9.4 | 13.0 | 13.0 | 10.9 |
| 17. Reducing transportation services for students | 11.6 | 5.8 | 8.8 | 10.1 | 8.4 |
| 18. Limiting summer school programs | 21.7 | 15.9 | 20.2 | 25.1 | 14.5 |
| 19. Offering fewer field trips for students | 7.6 | 12.8 | 17.4 | 20.8 | 15.1 |
| 20. Increased class sizes | 32.0 | 26.6 | 29.8 | 27.4 | 26.0 |
| 21. Increased teacher workload | 21.7 | 18.3 | 23.1 | 26.7 | 22.5 |
| 22. Increased administrator workload | NA | 33.9 | 39.6 | 49.8 | 42.8 |
| 23. Increased student fees | 35.6 | 23.9 | 25.3 | 28.7 | 24.1 |
| 24. Using fund balance to support budget | 20.8 | 21.7 | 26.6 | 32.2 | 35.0 |
| 25. Other | 3.9 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 4.6 | 1.0 |
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