Wednesday, May 09, 2007
City Schools: The Never Ending Story
The region is still in the throes of a population decline, with the City of Pittsburgh a significant contributor to the outflow of people. Pittsburgh City Schools have seen enrollment drop from 40,000 in 1998 and is expected to stand at just over 25,000 in the 2009-2010 school year. This rate of decline is faster than the overall drop of City population, meaning that those leaving have school age children or that those parents are taking their children out of Pittsburgh Public Schools.
The year-over-year enrollment losses average about 1,200 between 2007 and 2010. At that pace, the City schools could be serving less than 20,000 students by 2015. Amazingly, Charlotte, N.C. schools have added over 30,000 students since 2000, more than Pittsburgh’s current total enrollment.
With the falling enrollment we have seen some job cuts and school closings, though most of the former category will come from retirements and the latter has mostly been achieved.
The stunning realization for the school district is that even if they manage to cut a targeted $16 million per year over the next three years, total spending will still stand at $514 million in 2010. With an enrollment of 25,000 students, the district will still be spending over $20,000 per pupil. That is way out of line with other districts in the County and the state and far too high a price for the poor to mediocre academic achievements of the students.
That means the district administration and board ought to be setting a much more aggressive pace to cut more from the budget. Let’s face it, even with what the community already sees as overly-aggressive will still leave outsized per pupil spending. No cost saving measures should be off the table, nor should new approaches to improving achievement such as vouchers and privatization. But we’re sure union contracts and obedience to the will of the unionized employees will remain the closest thing to holy writ the school district observes.
Failure to deal with the spending and achievement issue now will set taxpayers up for severe heartburn when the teacher pension time bomb goes off in 2013.
“There is no way we can take you from here to there without a lot of pain, a lot of squealing and you hearing complaints from a lot of folks” were the words of the superintendent. Appropriate and no doubt sincere words. But will the board be willing to do what is necessary when union bosses begin campaigns to unseat those who are talking about drastic changes?
The year-over-year enrollment losses average about 1,200 between 2007 and 2010. At that pace, the City schools could be serving less than 20,000 students by 2015. Amazingly, Charlotte, N.C. schools have added over 30,000 students since 2000, more than Pittsburgh’s current total enrollment.
With the falling enrollment we have seen some job cuts and school closings, though most of the former category will come from retirements and the latter has mostly been achieved.
The stunning realization for the school district is that even if they manage to cut a targeted $16 million per year over the next three years, total spending will still stand at $514 million in 2010. With an enrollment of 25,000 students, the district will still be spending over $20,000 per pupil. That is way out of line with other districts in the County and the state and far too high a price for the poor to mediocre academic achievements of the students.
That means the district administration and board ought to be setting a much more aggressive pace to cut more from the budget. Let’s face it, even with what the community already sees as overly-aggressive will still leave outsized per pupil spending. No cost saving measures should be off the table, nor should new approaches to improving achievement such as vouchers and privatization. But we’re sure union contracts and obedience to the will of the unionized employees will remain the closest thing to holy writ the school district observes.
Failure to deal with the spending and achievement issue now will set taxpayers up for severe heartburn when the teacher pension time bomb goes off in 2013.
“There is no way we can take you from here to there without a lot of pain, a lot of squealing and you hearing complaints from a lot of folks” were the words of the superintendent. Appropriate and no doubt sincere words. But will the board be willing to do what is necessary when union bosses begin campaigns to unseat those who are talking about drastic changes?
