The Moriarty school board approved late last week its 2006-2007 budget, which includes the cutting of 17 teacher positions and eight other positions.
Teacher positions have also been cut in the Gadsden and Santa Fe districts. Las Cruces avoided cutting teacher positions by making other budgetary cuts.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: This budget crunch, largely attributed to rising energy and construction costs, must have been foreseen. It’s sad that state government had such a huge surplus of money this year and did nothing to prevent the cutting of teacher positions. Class sizes need to be shrinking, not growing.