Thursday, May 25, 2006
More Misguided Crying Over the Duquesne School District
As school districts set budgets for the upcoming school year, many are offsetting spending increases with millage hikes, while some are pondering significant expenditure cuts. The Duquesne City School District has proposed eliminating seven teachers, a school psychologist, a librarian, and a guidance counselor. Naturally the media, and of course parents, are all atwitter over these reductions calling them “grim”. The reality is that the District has experienced substantial enrollment declines and the state projects this decline to continue for the foreseeable future. Thus, some employee cuts are understandable inasmuch as they reflect recent and prospective enrollment drops.
According to the state Department of Education, for the 2004-05 school year (the most recent data available), Duquesne spent $13.1 million or more than $14,500 per-pupil for 900 students. Yet this district ranks at the very bottom of the state’s school districts on Pennsylvania’s education assessment exams. The proposed 2006-07 budget of $12.9 million does not represent a steep reduction. In fact, taking the drop in enrollment into account, the per-pupil expenditure for next year actually rises to $14,900.
If there is a group that should be gnashing their teeth, it is state and federal taxpayers who, year after year, continue to fund over 80 percent of the District’s costs by pouring millions into Duquesne schools only to receive an astoundingly poor return on their investment. Why can’t the school district educate its students with more than $14,000 per student in spending? And why should taxpayers throw good money after bad? With its high expenditures and awful education results, this district does not deserve more money; it deserves to be shut down.
If these children are to be adequately served and taxpayers are to be given a fair return on investment, then drastic changes have to be made. Either bring in a private firm to run the District or give parents vouchers and let them choose a school that best suits their needs. Or send them all to a cyber charter school. Do something positive to get them out of this unfixable morass. And quit listening to the educrats who keep saying that with more money they can set things right. The time has come to take care of the students and abandon the education establishment, including present and past school boards, who obviously do not care about the kids’ future or they would not put up with this mess.
According to the state Department of Education, for the 2004-05 school year (the most recent data available), Duquesne spent $13.1 million or more than $14,500 per-pupil for 900 students. Yet this district ranks at the very bottom of the state’s school districts on Pennsylvania’s education assessment exams. The proposed 2006-07 budget of $12.9 million does not represent a steep reduction. In fact, taking the drop in enrollment into account, the per-pupil expenditure for next year actually rises to $14,900.
If there is a group that should be gnashing their teeth, it is state and federal taxpayers who, year after year, continue to fund over 80 percent of the District’s costs by pouring millions into Duquesne schools only to receive an astoundingly poor return on their investment. Why can’t the school district educate its students with more than $14,000 per student in spending? And why should taxpayers throw good money after bad? With its high expenditures and awful education results, this district does not deserve more money; it deserves to be shut down.
If these children are to be adequately served and taxpayers are to be given a fair return on investment, then drastic changes have to be made. Either bring in a private firm to run the District or give parents vouchers and let them choose a school that best suits their needs. Or send them all to a cyber charter school. Do something positive to get them out of this unfixable morass. And quit listening to the educrats who keep saying that with more money they can set things right. The time has come to take care of the students and abandon the education establishment, including present and past school boards, who obviously do not care about the kids’ future or they would not put up with this mess.
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Twisted numbers! The high cost per pupil is attributed to the elected school board, former superintendent Ronald Mento, and former business manager Gary Matta making unauthorized purchases and cost over-runs during renovations in the late 1990's. Renovations were to be in the range of $12 million, yet ended up to be more than $20 million. Where did that money go? In the pockets of those mentioned above! Plus, the state is partially responsible because they approved some of the outrageous bids during that time. The failure to go after Mento, Matta and the board for this fiscal wrong-doing by the PA Attorney General was due to politics! They are the ones selling the students, teachers and taxpayers short.
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