Big changes for small schools?
Posted: Friday, November 9, 2012 6:00 am | Updated: 8:24 pm, Thu Nov 8, 2012.
We can’t think of a more controversial local issue than closing a school or merging with another school district. Mess with people’s schools and you’re asking for trouble.So you’d think local officials would know better than to broach the issue without including the public — from the very beginning.
But that’s just what school officials in Bristol and Morrisville boroughs have been doing; boning up on options to the increasingly unaffordable status quo, including the possibility of closing schools and/or merging with another district.
Not that officials want to do either. It’s just that the modern-day economics of public education make it increasingly difficult for small districts to function without scalding taxpayers or cheating students — or both. It’s why the state is pressuring districts to join forces and take advantage of the economies of scale.
At one time, Pennsylvania had more than 1,500 school districts. Currently, there are 501. And the state Department of Education would like to see that number cut in half.
That’s what state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis told officials from Bristol and Morrisville who traveled to Harrisburg recently, according to Bristol School Board President Ralph DiGuiseppe III. “The topic of conversation was finance and the potential high school closure if that’s something we had to do in terms of budget,” DiGuiseppe said, adding: “All I can say is that we’re not going to get (additional) money. The message was clear that things are going to get worse.”
That’s not new information. All across the state, school districts are facing financial crises thanks to reduced state funding, catapulting health insurance costs and the ticking pension time bomb. Meanwhile, special education costs continue to climb; so does the number of charter schools, which are siphoning more students each year followed by state subsidy money that otherwise would land in district treasuries.
It’s an irreversible course that only the strong can survive. (Read big districts with lots of taxpayers.)
The handwriting is on the chalkboard and so it’s not unusual that officials at small districts might start talking about the unpopular notion of closing schools or merging with other districts.
What’s unusual, in our view, is engaging in that discussion without actively engaging taxpayers. They are their schools after all. They pay for the buildings, the supplies and the salaries of everybody affiliated with the schools. They have a right to be informed and also to be part of the discussion.
Bristol officials at least mentioned the need to consider options in the spring as they struggled to agree on this year’s budget. Not a word to the public since then even though DiGuiseppe recently met with the state education secretary to explore funding realities and also options for educating students on less state money every year. And not a word out of Morrisville — not publicly — though the superintendent fessed up to attending the recent Harrisburg meeting.
Now that the word’s out, we’re glad to hear officials in both districts plan to let citizens know what’s going on while also inviting public input.
We’re not saying that school officials shouldn’t be educating themselves. The economic realities of public education are such that change is inevitable. Problem is, people don’t like change. They need to be eased into it and keeping folks informed is part of the process. Or should be.
Not that officials want to do either. It’s just that the modern-day economics of public education make it increasingly difficult for small districts to function without scalding taxpayers or cheating students — or both. It’s why the state is pressuring districts to join forces and take advantage of the economies of scale.
At one time, Pennsylvania had more than 1,500 school districts. Currently, there are 501. And the state Department of Education would like to see that number cut in half.
That’s what state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis told officials from Bristol and Morrisville who traveled to Harrisburg recently, according to Bristol School Board President Ralph DiGuiseppe III. “The topic of conversation was finance and the potential high school closure if that’s something we had to do in terms of budget,” DiGuiseppe said, adding: “All I can say is that we’re not going to get (additional) money. The message was clear that things are going to get worse.”
That’s not new information. All across the state, school districts are facing financial crises thanks to reduced state funding, catapulting health insurance costs and the ticking pension time bomb. Meanwhile, special education costs continue to climb; so does the number of charter schools, which are siphoning more students each year followed by state subsidy money that otherwise would land in district treasuries.
It’s an irreversible course that only the strong can survive. (Read big districts with lots of taxpayers.)
The handwriting is on the chalkboard and so it’s not unusual that officials at small districts might start talking about the unpopular notion of closing schools or merging with other districts.
What’s unusual, in our view, is engaging in that discussion without actively engaging taxpayers. They are their schools after all. They pay for the buildings, the supplies and the salaries of everybody affiliated with the schools. They have a right to be informed and also to be part of the discussion.
Bristol officials at least mentioned the need to consider options in the spring as they struggled to agree on this year’s budget. Not a word to the public since then even though DiGuiseppe recently met with the state education secretary to explore funding realities and also options for educating students on less state money every year. And not a word out of Morrisville — not publicly — though the superintendent fessed up to attending the recent Harrisburg meeting.
Now that the word’s out, we’re glad to hear officials in both districts plan to let citizens know what’s going on while also inviting public input.
We’re not saying that school officials shouldn’t be educating themselves. The economic realities of public education are such that change is inevitable. Problem is, people don’t like change. They need to be eased into it and keeping folks informed is part of the process. Or should be.
4 comments:
Bill Farrell's son approves
1 comment:
pajmf1 posted at 8:27 am on Fri, Nov 9, 2012.
Posts: 340
That's the way it should be.
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That's comforting because his heroes can do no wrong.
But meanwhile his father ran with and sat on the school board with those that tried to keep the "farm out" plan a secret. Hypocrisy at its finest.
You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about, whatsoever. Until you are clued-in to a degree that I, and I alone, determine to be sufficient, and until you post under your real name, I will consider myself to be 100% right and you will remain 100% wrong. I never had a problem with Stay on Track's secrecy. Therefore, no problem existed.
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