Around Valentine’s Day, parents in Cheatham County, Tenn., near Nashville, could face a problem: how to get their children to school.

There’s enough money in the 2008-09 school budget to pay for bus fuel only until February. The Cheatham County Board of Education doesn’t know what it will do after that.

“In the area where we live, those children are 12 miles from school,” said Kim Lane of Ashland City, the mother of a high school-age son. “That’s a long walk. What are they going to do?”

Lane could be asking the same question about school districts across the country. As 56 million children return to public schools in the coming days and weeks, they are getting a real-world lesson in economics.

In a survey of 546 local superintendents late last month by the American Association of School Administrators, 99 percent said rising costs and shrinking budgets were hurting their school systems.

Three in 10 superintendents said they were laying off or reassigning teachers to
save money; even more, 33 percent, said they were eliminating or reassigning support staff, such as janitors and maintenance workers.

Nearly half — 44 percent — said their districts were cutting back on field trips, while 37 percent said they were cutting back on heating and air conditioning and 31 percent said they were buying fewer supplies.

“While school systems are working hard to limit programming cuts, the sharp increase in costs will have a negative impact on children, especially disadvantaged children, unless the states and federal government act quickly to provide relief,” said Randall Collins, the association’s president.

Jobless teachers, crumbling schools
Late last month, the Miami-Dade County school board tentatively approved budget cuts of $700 million for the new school year. More than 1,500 teachers will lose their jobs, and none of the rest will get raises.

In the rural Maccray school district in southwestern Minnesota, students will stay home on Mondays. The district is moving to a four-day week to save $85,000 in costs for buses, heating bills, substitute teachers and student lunches. Districts in at least 11 other states are doing the same.

An msnbc.com-NBC News special report The following NBC affiliates contributed to this report: KNDU of Kennewick, Wash.; KOMU of Columbia, Mo.; KSL of Salt Lake City, Utah; WAGT of Augusta, Ga.; WAVY of Portsmouth, Va.; WKYC of Cleveland; WLUC of Marquette, Mich.; WMC of Memphis, Tenn.; WPBN of Traverse City, Mich.; WPSD of Paducah, Ky.; WSMV of Nashville, Tenn.; WTHR of Indianapolis; and WTVJ of Miami.

“We wouldn’t do the four-day school week if we had money,” Superintendent Greg Schmidt said. “With the state budget the way it is, there’s just no hope right now.”

Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, students at Floro Torrence School 83 will put up for at least another year with a crumbling entryway, an antiquated fire alarm system and restrooms that aren’t accessible for the handicapped. Edgar H. Evans Magnet School 11 won’t replace tiled floors or the concrete crumbling beneath them. Pieces of brick will keep falling from Stuart Hall at Tech High School.

That’s because the Indianapolis Public Schools system has a to-do list that’s about $10 million long, but it has only about $3 million for maintenance and repairs.

‘It’s very hard and very emotional’
In many school districts, crimped state budgets also are forcing spending cuts.

Scavenger hunt School administrators are finding other ways besides layoffs and service cuts to squeeze more out of the education dollar: • In the Davis School District in Farmington, Utah, students at six elementary schools go to class year-round. Administrators say the schedule stretches limited resources and eases crowding in libraries, lunchrooms and recreation areas. • The Madison School Board in Madison, Ohio, has approved plans to privatize its bus service. District bus drivers were laid off, but they can apply for jobs with the contractor — at about a 20 percent pay cut. • The Richmond County School System in Augusta, Ga., built its own printing shop to consolidate printing costs and eliminate retail printing fees. All forms, handbooks, stationary and business cards for the system's 61 schools are printed in the basement of the Board of Education. • The Nashville, Tenn., school board is considering selling ads on its school buses. They would be black and white, and alcohol, cigarette and political ads would be prohibited. • Phyllis Chase, superintendent of schools in Columbia, Mo., which faces a $9.1 million deficit, cut her own salary by 10 percent this year, turning back $20,000 to the school board. • About 60 school districts and individual schools in Illinois formed a consortium to negotiate group rates on electricity and natural gas. msnbc.com research/Alex Johnson

“The mortgage crisis going on means there are fewer property owners, fewer property taxes being paid,” said Bill Siegferth, president of the Akron (Ohio) Education Association.

To save money, Virginia officials decided to merge the state’s two schools for students with disabilities. As a result, parents of students at the Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-Disabled in Hampton will have to decide whether to send their children hours away to the state’s only other facility, in Staunton.

In Traverse City, Mich., Michael Murray, superintendent of the Suttons Bay School District, said he expected to fall at least $1 million short this year thanks to cuts in state and federal funding.

The district has to find its own money to make up the shortfall, which represents 13.5 percent of its projected expenses. Class sizes will grow, and the athletic program will be cut so sharply that freshman sports teams could be eliminated, meaning ninth-graders would play on junior varsity teams.

Twenty-one teaching and staff positions are also on the chopping block.

“We’ve had layoffs before, but never this many all at one time,” said Keven Cross, president of the Suttons Bay Education Association. “It’s hard and very emotional.”

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