Town Budget Cuts
The budget cuts regarding the world language department will have a negative effect on the students at William J. Johnston Middle School and Bacon Academy. The main concern that students in both schools have is the fact that most colleges look to see that students have completed a minimum of 3 years of a foreign language. The Tier 2 budget cut will eliminate all foreign language courses in the middle school. It will include two years worth of foreign language courses at the high school, however Spanish will be the only language option. For current juniors such as myself, as well as the seniors at Bacon Academy, this won’t be a huge problem, as we have already completed our 3 years of foreign language. However, for the next group of freshman and all of the middle schoolers, this will become an issue when applying to college, as they won’t meet the required number of years of a foreign language. These students will struggle to get into the college of their choice all because of this budget cut. And what about the 7th graders who have already taken one year of a foreign language? Will they be expected to skip a year of learning the language and continue it when they reach high school? They will have a gap year in which they won’t be learning any of the language, and will most likely forget what at they have already learned by the time they resume the course in high school.
I remember how excited I was in middle school when I chose to take French; while I had nothing against Spanish, I had always found French to be a beautiful language to listen to. Having gone to France the summer before I began the course, I had developed a strong interest in the culture as well. Had I been forced to take Spanish, I’m sure I wouldn’t have done very well in the class because my interest in learning Spanish wasn’t nearly as strong as my interest in learning French. The middle schoolers and upcoming freshman will be deprived of a language variety and might have to settle for a language they have no interest in.
The Tier 2 budget cut will also include the elimination of all after school programs and sports except varsity football. Throughout all of my high school years, I have been told to join after school programs because colleges like to see them on your resume. While this is an important reason for the programs and sports to be kept, need I mention that after school programs and sports are the key components of a school? When someone is looking to go to another high school, they look for schools with certain sports and afterschool programs that interest them. By taking away these components, we are scrapping our schools to the bare minimum, making them hardly appeasable.
This year, I am a part of the STEM, Interact, Young Democrats, and Journalism clubs; I, as well as many other students, would be very disappointed if these clubs weren’t offered next year because they have allowed me to be a part of such incredible experiences that I hope other students can be a part of as well in the years to come.
