California
’s state budget crisis is severe enough that no sector of
publicly supported services will be spared from drastic cuts. While
those of us in education feel that our area is sacred ground and
should be spared, we must accept that the cuts required to put a
dent in a $35 billion deficit will have to
include educational services in addition to other state
supported initiatives.
California’s state budget crisis is severe enough that no sector of publicly supported services will be spared from drastic cuts. While those of us in education feel that our area is sacred ground and should be spared, we must accept that the cuts required to put a dent in a $35 billion deficit will have to include educational services in addition to other state supported initiatives.
As the governor and Legislature struggle over which tax supported services to cut and how deeply, our state leaders, and all educators, need to be bold and innovative in their search for ways to improve education while facing massive budget cuts. I do not think it is an impossible task, but one that will test the willingness of all Californians to fight the entropy that keeps the educational system from changing dramatically.
While most schools and school districts can cut a bit here and there, the kind of reductions required will dictate more than just scrimping on paper, cutting a few special programs or reducing the numbers of aides in classrooms.The budget reductions necessary are so big that the total education budget must be examined for significant areas to tackle. If it is true ( I have heard different numbers) that half of the entire state’s expenditure on education is spent on the state Department of Education and county Offices of Education, then that is the very first place to cut.
Education has become so bureaucratized as to be ineffective at changing with the times and at meeting its true mission. No private company could survive with 50 percent of its budget spent on overhead not directly related to the product.
County Offices of Education and the state Department of Education do not interact with children on a daily basis (except for a very few small county programs for special education children with severe handicaps or emotional needs). Colleen Wilcox, Santa Clara County School Superintendent, was recently in the South Valley asking residents and educators for their input on ways to improve education. I suggest that the county look at its own bureaucracy as a good place to make reductions, just like every school and district is struggling to do.
The County Office of Education on Ridder Park Drive is an enormous building, catacombed with layers of “specialists” looking over reports in a gorgeous setting, complete with indoor fountains, gardens, clean carpet and framed artwork. Yet, few in these offices provide direct services to children, families or teachers.
I recommend that after cutting any extra staff, the truly necessary personnel in county offices be allocated throughout the public schools, where they might find it rewarding to do the required paperwork part of the day and tutor children or support teachers for the rest.
In Santa Clara County, the fantastic building could be made into a charter high school with students directly benefiting from the expensive setting and learning in a positive environment. Santa Clara County school districts can process their own payroll and checks in a much more efficient manner than having every single check processed at the district office, travel to the county for printing and back to the district for distribution.
There are many areas in which funds can be saved and services can improve with a reworking of the system. All educational entities must look for ways in which to cut out the excess and focus on the most necessary direct services which benefit children and teachers. Many of the state legislators might not like losing their pet state projects to such budget trimming (see the Sacramento Bee beginning of Feb. 2 for an in-depth examination of this topic), but our current crisis requires all educational personnel, not just teachers and students, to bravely, creatively look for waste and eliminate it.
Those of us in charter schools, actively marketing our services to attract students, have always been forced to offer a superior education more efficiently. While many charter schools, like Charter School of Morgan Hill, struggle to reach true financial stability and find permanent school facilities, the education we are offering is at a much more efficient rate than many of our public and private school neighbors.
As a small start up school, we have extremely limited resources. We must offer competitive pay to attract outstanding teachers, while also scrounging resources, fundraising creatively and keeping operational costs low to stay in the black. And, most charter schools usually are forced to pay rent, a cost that school districts do not face, and do so without the access to state facilities funds available to districts.
One of the great benefits of charter schools is their ability to be responsive to the times and their customers. If cuts are necessary, then we will make them as far away from direct service to children as we can and continue to offer a high quality education to our students. As passionate, committed members of a school community, we simply have no choice.
In Sacramento, board members of the sprawling school district have shown such bold leadership by recently voting to disband 147-year-old Sacramento High School because it is not offering a quality education or meeting its students’ needs. The school board plans to break apart the school into smaller charter schools that can be responsive and accountable to their students, teachers and parents. This is the type of dramatic, gutsy action that is required at a time like this. California needs all sectors of the education establishment to be willing to take a hard look at expenditures in every area, especially those that do not directly impact students, and make this crisis into an opportunity for education reform.
Mary Smather is Director of Charter School of Morgan Hill. Readers interested in writing a guest column should contact editor Walt Glines at [email protected] or 779-4106.
