We’re over half way through the budget season and the one presentation that perplexes me (and is soon to come) is the school budget presentation. We are scheduled to meet with the schools for an hour or so. This seems like a short amount of time for an agency that gets over half of the general fund budget. I don’t say this to impeach the schools or, for that matter, anyone in particular. It just perplexes me.
I worry about the school budget. Succesful schools are crucial to our collective success but there isn’t an endless supply of money either. I say this as it appears that the schools are, more or less, going to wipe out their “Rainy Day Fund” (RDF) this year. Some of that money is going to capital projects and that’s fine. However, some is also going to pay for raises and other operating costs. That doesn’t seem like a very good idea to me.
I am, obviously, of two minds about this. Use of RDF isn’t the end of the world. The City has gone into their RDF plenty of times but my impression is that we are loath to do it for recurring costs. The schools want to give their teachers raises and that’s understandable but there also isn’t much money available for it so they are emptying their RDF to do it. I want to accomodate the schools needs but I just can’t get past thinking this isn’t a good idea. What do you guys think?
March 22, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Andy, tapping the RDF to pay for salaries is definitely NOT a good idea and is irresponsible. The Schools’ budget cannot continue its double-digit increases as in the past. No matter what the teachers are paid, there will be a No.Va. jurisdiction that pays more so I get sick of that argument. The City population increases at about 140 people a year and the School population is projected to shrink. The issue is: we have a School Board that is not fiscally conservative and doesn’t hold the schools accountable. The schools should cut expenses elsewhere to pay for teacher salary increases and use the Rainy Day Fund for real unexpected expenses. My question to you and the Council: you control the 56.2% but do you really have a say as to how the Schools spend it? What we need is more choices for the education of our children that government would support financially. Funny thing how competition breeds innovation. (Full disclosure: we homeschool two of our 3 school-age children. The third goes to Round.)
March 22, 2007 at 2:14 pm
– “The Crisis in Manassas Schools” – front page editorial by
Miss E.H. Osbourn in the April 22, 1921 Manassas Journal calling for
more financial support “before we lose our best teachers”.
– Manassas Messenger headline on January 9, 1947 – “Taxes and
Teacher’s Pay Are Major 1947 Problems”.
– And, alas, they are major problems in 2007. Gosh darn.
March 22, 2007 at 2:15 pm
My understanding is that the council has no say in where school money goes.
March 22, 2007 at 3:54 pm
The only thing that can be accomplished in an hour presentation is a report on the status quo. The one key feature in a sound budget process is that it facilitates the evaluation of performance – both at the operating unit and the personnel in those units. That’s what I think is missing in the Manassas City budget process. Although each deparrtment has defined output and outcome measures, there’s not a follow-up component each year to measure how well they have done in meeting those performance measures. Therefore, there’s no accountability.
March 22, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Some footnotes:
-Prior to 1992 the Manassas School Board was
appointed by the city council which gave the governing body great
leverage in discussions with the board. The budget was reviewed
closely by category and any movement between categories would have
to be approved by the council. (In 1992, Manassas citizens voted to
move to elected school boards – Manassas Park did not and still
has appointed members).
– The 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case Plyler vs. Doe
prohibits schools from asking about legal status. It further held
that children of illegal immigrants are eligible for public education.
March 23, 2007 at 6:18 am
Andy,
Remember back to our days on the City Futures Task Force? I advocated for restructuring the revenue sharing agreement. I think that those responsible for raising the revenue need a bit more control and oversite of where the money is spent. I agree that raiding the RDF is a bad idea, especially if this isn’t a surplus that is expected to grow over the next few years. A small cash-on-hand reserve is a prudent thing to maintain. One thing that does perplex me is that many of us (myself included) advocate using the state budget surplus to fix transportation. I am trying to figure out why if this seems like a good idea to me, using the RDF to pay for operational expenses seems like such a bad one. The best justification that I can come up with is that transportation is a true emergency, and until we start losing high numbers of our best teachers to other school districts, this doesn’t seem like an emergency to me. The emerging problem at hand is how will Manassas continue to fund massive ESL student populations, meet it’s State ESOL and Fed NCLB requirements, while faced with a projected declining tax-revenue stream. Not an easy task.
March 26, 2007 at 11:10 am
j
March 29, 2007 at 12:54 pm
FYI – Per the Manassas City Public School presentation last night to
the City Council:
The student body – 40.5% White
39.4% Hispanic (2nd highest % in Virginia)
15.1% Black
4.5% Asian
0.5% Other
ESL students (35.9@) require 30% more $ to educate than the General
(English speaking) students. Consequently, when a little less than
a thousand “Generals” leave and are replaced with ESL students –
the student body may be the same size, but the cost have soared.
(The change has taken place over the last three years).