Nutter waiting to see how school district cuts budget

Philadelphia’s Public Schools could be facing a major deficit next year.  The city isn’t committing any extra funding to help out right now.

Mayor Michael Nutter says he wants to see how the schools trim their budget before saying the city will commit any additional funding to help out with a projected budget deficit of up to $49 million  this year and possibly $400 million next year.

“We have to talk with the school district and see what the full range of their plans are first for reductions in costs over at the school district what any of those cost reductions might do in terms of impact to children’s education and then we will take it from there,” said Nutter.

The mayor says the administration is working on the city budget right now which has its own fiscal challenges, but he cannot predict what will happen in the future.

School District Superintendent Arlene Ackerman says she is using a hiring freeze among other efforts to cut the current budget.  She acknowledges that class sizes might have to get bigger in the next school year to deal with the much larger shortfall.