20060607
    It is amazing how little the taxpayers, the 100% shareholders in the funding of public education, know about how the money collected is spent in support of education. Yet, many school districts are constantly asking for more while never really explaining what happened to the money already spent. One of the most obvious symptoms of this problem is the never ending reality that teachers are never paid what they are worth.
    Consider that education is one of the only professions that expects all of its practitioners to achieve post-bachelor’s education, often at least a master’s degree, yet also expects its practitioners to work for a fraction of the pay provided to master’s degree candidates of other professions. Worse, most school districts pay only a small sum, if any, of a teacher’s expenses in achieving this high level of education.
    Some might respond with the obvious retort, ‘So the money should be spent on the teachers instead of the kids?’, and my simple answer to that question is a qualified ‘yes’. Consider that, if children are being educated by well qualified and well paid teachers, they are more likely to learn more simply because those teachers know what they are teaching and want to teach.
    There is no doubt that there is more to the educational equation than just well paid teachers, but in this time of skyrocketing educational budgets, teachers are often being asked to freeze or reduce their salaries. Teachers are being laid off, increasing and already stressful class load exacerbated by restricted ability to discipline, students who often do not care, and overtaxed and sometimes inept administration.
    Of course, funding a system like public education is a daunting and complex undertaking, but the truth is that there are very few public school districts that can account to the taxpayers why the funding conditions they find in their districts exist, or worse, they do not want the taxpayers to know because of the backlash such knowledge would inevitably cause.
    The solution to this problem is simple: make the school funding, budgeting, and expenditure system transparent. Force public school districts to directly and regularly report to the taxpayers how all money is being spent, from building maintenance to administrative costs. Demonstrate to the taxpayers how the money is being spent on education- paying teachers, buying books and supplies, and maintaining buildings- and how it is not being spent on things that do not benefit education.
    Transparency is the most effective solution not only to the funding crisis in public schools, but in most of the problems facing public education. Make the system transparent, and then the people who have the most vested interest in seeing the public education system succeed can ensure that the system is functioning in the best way possible. After all, it is the taxpayer’s system.
DLH
In my school, we still have classes without books (teachers must copy all materials themselves on their own time), classrooms that have no properly functioning heating/cooling (forget about A/C – that’s only for the administration, the copy rooms and the board office), and jam-packed classes every semester because “there’s no money to hire new teachers”. And we’re supposed to be the “rich district” in the area…where’s the money going? Not to the students or the teachers.