[Speed Gibson,
Tuesday March 1, 2005 at 9:46pm]
It's Education Week
Last month it was Speed Week at Daytona, with a number of NASCAR events leading to the Daytona 500. This month, it's Education week, starting with an OpEx suite of articles, the rally at the Capitol Monday, the Star Tribune's account today, including another confused op-ed by Minnetonka City Manager John Gunyou. (Note: give KSTP-TV a star for covering it very honestly - and briefly on Monday night.)
We'll no doubt see more feature and opinions the rest of this week, maybe another splash to wrap up next Sunday, with fresh money from the latest tax receipts forecast now in play.
But don't lose sight of what's happening. Failure gets you money in the current system. Test scores still falling? Achievement gap widening? Graduation rates are down? Truancy is up? Losing students to home schooling? We need more money! Running out of books and supplies? Overly generous pensions underfunded? Building and grounds run down from neglect? We need more money!
Suppose a well-run district had none of these problems and just wanted an inflation increase of 2%. What would be their chances of getting that ahead of a poorly run district with many of the above problems asking for 7% more? If anything, the prospect of losing existing funds "they don't need" is the most likely result.
We'll no doubt see more feature and opinions the rest of this week, maybe another splash to wrap up next Sunday, with fresh money from the latest tax receipts forecast now in play.
But don't lose sight of what's happening. Failure gets you money in the current system. Test scores still falling? Achievement gap widening? Graduation rates are down? Truancy is up? Losing students to home schooling? We need more money! Running out of books and supplies? Overly generous pensions underfunded? Building and grounds run down from neglect? We need more money!
Suppose a well-run district had none of these problems and just wanted an inflation increase of 2%. What would be their chances of getting that ahead of a poorly run district with many of the above problems asking for 7% more? If anything, the prospect of losing existing funds "they don't need" is the most likely result.