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Posted: Tuesday, 21 July 2009 2:25PM
After-school, gifted education program cuts OK'd
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - The Illinois Board of Education has approved a budget that eliminates after-school and gifted programs and cuts funding for early childhood, reading and foreign language instruction by as much as half.
Members also voted at an emergency meeting Tuesday to severely reduce funding for arts, agricultural education, and advanced placement classes. Money for bilingual studies, the rehabilitation of truant students, and the visually impaired was also slashed.
Advocates who testified at the meeting warned of consequences as dire as more children on the streets.
Chairman Jesse Ruiz said lawmakers had given the board no choice. They approved an overall education budget of nearly $7.3 billion for fiscal 2010, a 2 percent decrease from the year before.
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Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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