After heated debate over the past several months, the Lawrence School Board has finally approved a budget proposal to solve the district’s $5 million shortfall. The new plan surprised many, coming seemingly out of nowhere. Though most people’s issues with previous solutions were addressed, this still may not be the perfect solution the district is looking for.

There are many aspects to this budget proposal that deserve to be praised, aspects which Lawrence residents fought hard for. However, there are also some areas that are not quite ideal. This should be corrected in the future.

For instance, $200,000 are going to be taken out of materials funding. An important aspect of a proper education is getting the needed materials, and taking from an area that is already underfunded is not the best solution. Without these funds, purchasing new computers, textbooks and even paper needed for printing assignments will be difficult, if not impossible.

Another low point is that school lunch prices are being raised by 12 cents, requiring families pay more during an economically poor time.

It is, however, worthy of noting that no neighborhood schools will be closed to help cover the budget gap. This is good news to the parents in the Save Our Neighborhood Schools campaign and for their children who go to those schools. The sixth-grade music programs are not going to be cut, and these are needed to ensure the success of higher-level music courses. These were two of the most controversial points in previous plans. High administration costs was also an aspect of the budget that needed to be addressed, and it is good that it finally was.

Of course, some might think that even if there are some flaws there are no better solutions. This is wrong. There are better solutions for these problems. As previously stated, administration has been cut, however, while not ideal, they could be cut more.

The budget also mentions raising the student teacher ratio by one, which saves $1.1 million, so by raising it by another, we should logically save another million.

The new budget is a major improvement. It addresses solutions to the most heavily debated areas of the budget. However, it could be better, and these areas need to be fixed in the next budget. Cutting administration and increasing the student teacher ratio, for example, are both workable solutions.