The title of the story is “Cumberland will lose 70 teachers under new budget.”
But the district did not “lose 70 teachers.” It lost 70 teacher positions formerly funded using teacher assistant funds.
According to the report, the district will “dip into reserve funds to pay the teachers this year.” Despite what the title says or implies, Cumberland County Schools lost no teachers under the new budget. Instead, they had to pay them in a different way.
The problem is that school districts had a habit of using teacher assistant funds for other purposes. Districts claimed that fully funding teacher assistants was an absolute necessity, so legislators now require districts to use teacher assistant funding for teacher assistants only.
