For years summer school programs have been viewed as stopgap opportunities to narrow the achievement gap among those students who have additional needs. In rural states like North Dakota, select students are afforded an opportunity to enroll in summer programs that can help the students maintain and retain knowledge gained during the regular school year, thus ensuring they do not fall short of expectations at the beginning of the following school year. Students can feel fortunate that these opportunities are continuing in the summer of 2009.

Still, in other parts of the country, notably some large city school districts, the budgets are lean and summer school is landing on the chop block. Take Los Angeles, one of our nations larger cities and school districts; they are canceling all summer programs except those classes necessary for graduation. The Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent reports that the district will save $34 Million Dollars by canceling summer school, which attracts nearly an average of 225,000 students per summer. In this environment, many students who already experience an achievement gap will likely see it widen; especially those students coming from low-income neighborhoods where summer school may help improve Math, Science and English scores, all areas targeted for improvement by our nations President.

If viewed in this way, California’s budget crisis is leading to educational decisions that directly conflict with Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s Plan for Lifetime Success Through Education. This plan pays particular attention to low-income families and school districts where achievement is less than acceptable. The President and Vice-President wish to see more and more dollars directed to low income districts to ensure our educational system serves the student, parent and community in meaningful ways.

Unfortunately California and other states experiencing budget deficits will likely put many more school systems and administrators in the difficult position to make tough decisions that lead to hardships for those communities. By hardships, we are not only talking about achievement gaps, but also the single mom who is working and now needs to find day care in the summer. How about the teacher, who is supplementing his/her income by filling a position as a summer instructor. And lastly, the community, that will experience increased criminal behavior and mischievous activity as a result of young people roaming the streets.

You see, many of us in North Dakota can feel fortunate that our state is not experiencing major budget problems that are impacting education in a negative way. In fact, we have been blessed to see record amounts of money flow into our school systems as a result of House Bill No. 1400. Yet, while we find ourselves relatively unaffected by budget issues this year, we must keep in mind that our educational system relies more heavily on the state now than ever. We can feel fortunate that in North Dakota summer programs go on while in other parts of the country they cease. It goes without saying that those states and school districts are waiting impatiently for more dollars so summer school can be reopened at some time in the near future.