[Speed Gibson,
Thursday March 13, 2008 at 12:25am]
Elementary Math
The Osseo School District (279) has announced its budget cuts forced by the failure to get additional funding in November's elections. This includes closing two elementary schools, Edgewood and Osseo. Judging by the local Channel 12 coverage, the affected parents are seething, vowing to take their children out of the district.
These closings save little money. One report said that these closings will cover only about 5 percent of the projected $16 million shortfall. If the parents follow through on their threats, it may not cover even that.
As with District 281, these closings seem almost silly to me. You save pennies, not dollars, for which you draw the ire of the community. Plus, it seems like a race to the bottom. Enrollment drops, so you close a school, but only when the sword of Damocles looms overhead. Without a local school, fewer families move nearby, and enrollment drops further.
Public education will seldom live up to most parents' expectations and yet they storm the Board rooms when closings, even changes are mentioned. They're not the best schools they could want, but they're their schools. Even if they agree that their new school will be as good, it's usually a significantly longer distance away. It's no longer a home game.
This is simplistic advice, but I would raise class sizes to whatever is required to keep these schools open, not close them for the chump change savings like we're looking at here.
These closings save little money. One report said that these closings will cover only about 5 percent of the projected $16 million shortfall. If the parents follow through on their threats, it may not cover even that.
As with District 281, these closings seem almost silly to me. You save pennies, not dollars, for which you draw the ire of the community. Plus, it seems like a race to the bottom. Enrollment drops, so you close a school, but only when the sword of Damocles looms overhead. Without a local school, fewer families move nearby, and enrollment drops further.
Public education will seldom live up to most parents' expectations and yet they storm the Board rooms when closings, even changes are mentioned. They're not the best schools they could want, but they're their schools. Even if they agree that their new school will be as good, it's usually a significantly longer distance away. It's no longer a home game.
This is simplistic advice, but I would raise class sizes to whatever is required to keep these schools open, not close them for the chump change savings like we're looking at here.
One of the biggest savings available to Districts would be in ncreasing class sizes, but they are prevented from accessing it by The Great Class Size Myth. The myth says that children learn better in smaller classes. But that's only true-- according to scientific research-- up to about the third grade, and only down to about 16 students in kindergarten. There are practical uppper limits, of course, having to do wiht classROOM size, but it's never really looked at, and the District can never back up its stated numbers on class size nor prove that lowering class size has produced results.
Worst of all is the perpetual "shell game" being run here. Parents demand better schools, the schools say, "we will get better if we have more money." More money arrives, and schools say "we need more money." They NEVER get to the point of improving, because we always let them say that more money is the answer. It never is, it never can be. Tell them "improve, and THEN we will pay you better." Then watch the results pour in. You get what you measure.