Having taught public school for over ten years now, I am quite familiar with the process of money coming into the state and district budget and then getting meted out to the schools and finally … children. The same amount (more or less) is allocated to each school district and then they take that chunk and put it in a fund. From there, many processes take place to decided where it will go. It is that process where a lot of things can go wrong. Many districts feel they need to keep what they call a “reserve.” This is in effect “saving for a rainy day.” Sometimes, districts will keep this money in “reserve” at the expense of much needed expenditures. Other times, they will spend millions of dollars on theings that, debatably, are not necessary. Some examples I have seen are: changing macs to PC’s at every school. Another example is hiring an outside agency to train and mentor teachers. In this case, think of the money that could be saved by using the accomplished, veteran teachers to mentor in-house. In the case of the computers: do elementary school kids really need brand new computers every 5 years? I agree computers are important but they are also really really expensive.
I could go on and on but I want the reader to understand that the government does not tell school districts what to do with the money they are given. It is decided by school boards, pressured (but not decided) by teacher unions, and then given out in a budget to the schools who choose what they want to spend it on. When it finally reaches the kids, it has gone down the a pachinko ball through every check and balance you can imagine. Sometimes this can be a good way to get money to the kids and sometimes the things it buys are obsolete and not necessary.
I feel there needs to be more emphasis on what the parents want. They should have a place at least equal to the school board. They can go up and argue with school board decisions at meetings but they usually have a vote only at the school level (if that). We should move more toward a system that involves the community. The reserve is a nice thought but it can get far too big. Taxpayer money should be spent on books and items to promote learning and achievement. What good is a reserve if the stuff TODAY is not being funded. As we move into a deeper recession, I think it is high time we brought parental influence into the decision making process. Let the experts (us) weigh what they suggest against reason and academic benefit but at least we should hear from them and let them vote on our budgets. A 4 group vote makes sense to me: teachers, district personnel, parents, and students. I don’t know how that would look, I’m just thinking out loud … isn’t that why one has a blog?
