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It's a hard pill to swallow: budgets tightening for public school districts across the country and school officials dealing with the unpleasant task of painfully determining what stays and what must go. However, many school districts are getting creative with their efforts to make ends meet, and some are finding ways to trim the budget without sacrificing the quality of education to do so. Others are not so lucky, as job eliminations are forcing larger class sizes and fewer extracurricular programs. We'll examine some of the ways public schools are finding ways to make ends meet in the wake of severe budget cuts across the country.

Restructuring Continuing in Detroit

No one understands the impact of budget cuts better than the Detroit Public Schools district, which has been hit hard, as the economy in the area is one of the slowest in the country. The district is currently in the midst of a consolidation and closure plan that is attempting to align open schools and available services with student needs. According to an article at , the moves are designed to cut operating costs without sacrificing services or facilities for the students that need them most.

Roy S. Roberts, emergency manager for the school district, told Click on Detroit, "There continues to be overcapacity for the number of students that we serve despite the closings that have occurred, and while the moves we are announcing today bring DPS more in line

Despite the fact that public education is still free and available to all the children within a given district, there are still serious disparities in achievement between the students from wealthy families and those from low-income families. Because education is a crucial factor in overcoming poverty and raising an individual's quality of life overall, it is important to overcome those disparities to bring students from lower-income backgrounds every educational advantage. Some schools across the country are making it a priority to close the achievement gap, so students from all income levels and backgrounds can enjoy the same opportunities.

Columbia Public Schools Offer a Multi-Prong Solution

Columbia Public Schools in Missouri are taking a whole new approach to closing the achievement gap by addressing the problem at many different levels. According to a report at the , the district is done pointing fingers at parents, teachers, community members and students. Instead, they are going to focus on bringing all these groups together to provide the best possible educational experience to all of the students in their area.

Steve Calloway, president of the Minority Men's Network, told a group of parents and educators that it was time to take matters into their own hands. Calloway told the Tribune, "We really want our community to be a shining example of how to close the achievement gap." However, Calloway cautioned that the change would not happen overnight. The solution must be completed in phases that

Many educators and parents are fed up with the current state of public education and have decided to take matters into their own hands. To make their voices heard in state legislatures and Washington, they have invited all disgruntled with the school system to meet together this summer in Washington, D.C. The Save Our Schools March has been gaining steam since its inception a year ago, and now many local marches are planned across the country. We'll look at the purpose of the Save Our Schools March and why so many nationwide have become frustrated enough with public education to take a public stand.

What is the Save Our Schools March?

This movement has cumulated into the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action, which began approximately one year ago. Many parents, students, educators, and community members have become increasingly frustrated with the No Child Left Behind Act, which went into effect ten years ago, and the more recent Race to the Top initiative by the Obama Administration. According to the organization's website, this group has seen the educational system transform into one that is primarily governed by test scores rather than real instruction.

Many in this movement have taken their concerns to state politicians, and some have even gone to Capitol Hill with their issues. However, they do not feel that anyone in a position to make the necessary changes has listened to their pleas. That is when the Save Our Schools March and

Standardized tests have come under fire once again in Washington D.C., as the results in three schools have now been thrown out due to testing procedure violations and allegations of impropriety. The city has also implemented tighter security guidelines and is monitoring more schools for testing irregularities each year, according to a report at . The results of this investigation have resulted in specific measures being taken to ensure the integrity of the testing process in the future. However, questions still remain about how Washington D.C. schools ended up in this position in the first place and whether high-stakes testing is to blame for the problems.

This video reports on the C.D. schools' standardized test scandal.

A History of Washington D.C. Test Issues

Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of Washington D.C. schools, sang the praises of many of the schools that raised their standardized test scores by astronomical numbers under her watch. Rhee used the test results as evidence that her sometimes unpopular methods of education reform were working. One school, in particular, Noyes Education Campus, showed two-year gains that were nearly unheard of in the public education system. However, the school also displayed an unusually high number of erasures on their tests, which raised the eyebrows of some education officials and the media.

USA Today was all over the concerns and looked at other schools within the city to