With all of the hand wringing over the SBOE these last couple of weeks some education headlines have fallen by the wayside. One such headline was Time to Consolidate School Districts.
Glen Hartman, a former San Antonio city councilman wrote to the San Antonio Express News that the way to cut the cost of education is to cut administrative overhead. His preferred method of accomplishing this is to consolidate school districts.
This is not a new idea, is doable under current education code and would curtail non education spending in our state schools. The case has often made on this blog that our education system has become more about employing adults than educating children. Much of that employment and funding is thrown into cumbersome bureaucratic oversight.
With more non teachers employed by our state education system than actual teachers it is becoming increasingly more difficult to argue against these calls for restraint and retraction. When you add in the total amount we are spending per pupil and the results achieved the point becomes all the more salient.
If you don’t like the idea of consolidating school districts then consider getting rid of the middle man. Superintendents make a lot of money and claim to be experts in educating our children but that is not on the whole manifested in the fruits of their “labor.”
If funds soaked up by central administrative districts were allowed to flow to principals and teachers we would have more money with which to educate and more control over how it is being spent. That does not appeal to the teachers union because it would mean cutting “retired on the job” teachers or DOA graduates.
The budget is going to be at the forefront of talks heading into 2011 and this is a juicy piece of fat begging to be cut.
SA News Story Link
