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Editorial: Adding more bureaucracy to schools is unjustifiable
As they sing on Sesame Street, “One of these things is not like the others.”
That should be the theme song Wednesday when the board of directors for Spokane Public Schools examines a list of options that district administrators have compiled for dealing with a budgetary shortfall of between $9 million and $12 million. The list’s budget-balancing ideas range from raising school lunch prices to suspending Advanced Placement programs in calculus.
One item on the list, however, is conspicuously not like the others. In contrast with a selection of painful but possibly unavoidable cuts, board member Rocky Treppiedi has proposed adding a new administrative position. That’s right, adding.
Treppiedi believes the district needs someone to oversee program changes aimed at reducing dropout rates. Unspecified cuts elsewhere in administration could be used to pay for the new post.
Only a few months ago, Treppiedi and other board members were defending the generous pay increases they gave to more than 100 district administrators. It takes adequate compensation, board members explained, to attract and retain capable leaders. But with more than 100 capable district leaders now making more than $100,000 a year, there should be sufficient talent on hand to assume the responsibilities for which Treppiedi suggests creating a new job.
Until the plodding Legislature decides how harshly it is going to treat public schools, local leaders are forced to wait and consider an array of strategies, many of which would be unthinkable in better times. While the school board is prepared to increase class sizes and lay off teachers if necessary, it wisely continues to search for better alternatives.
Still, School Board President Sue Chapin has stated that reductions made in recent years leave the district with only painful choices if more cuts are the answer. It’s no time to be growing the hierarchy.
Local school leaders in Washington routinely and justifiably complain that the Legislature does not live up to its constitutional duty to make ample provision for basic education. They also decry state lawmakers’ practice of handing down “unfunded mandates” – requirements that aren’t backed up by funds.
To fill the gap, schools must turn to local voters for property tax levies that once were meant to pay for extras rather than basics. Spokane Public Schools already spends special levy money to help pay administrators nearly twice what the state allots. This would be a poor time to put another administrator on the payroll.
If the school board is determined to preserve as strong an instructional program as possible, it will focus Wednesday on finding savings that do the least damage to basic education. The list they’ve been given contains many difficult but valid options. But creating a new expense? That just doesn’t belong.