[CSPS] ways to save education money?

[Jonathan Coopersmith]

FYI.  From a column in the Dallas Morning News

Teachers jumped on my assignment

08:45 PM CST on Sunday, March 27, 2005
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/columnists/sparks/stories/032805dnmetedcol.ee74.html
By SCOTT PARKS / The Dallas Morning News

Dear Readers:

Talk about a response!

I asked teachers to suggest ways that school districts can save money. 
Education funding has been in the news this year. So, I thought we could 
convert this space temporarily into a forum about how schools spend money.

So far, I've gotten more than 100 e-mails.

Several teachers made political statements instead of offering ideas for 
cost savings. They lamented their salaries. They talked about spending 
their own money on classroom supplies. They feared that exploring ideas for 
saving money might erode public support for salary increases and for more 
education funding in general.

Teachers from so-called "rich districts" poured out their resentment 
against the "poor districts" that receive payments under the "Robin Hood" 
provision in school finance law.

But most e-mailers followed directions for this assignment and shared ideas 
for more efficient school operations.

One caveat: These teachers are passionate observers of their industry. They 
are not impartial or objective. And they may not fully understand why 
school districts operate the way they do.

Nonetheless, their views are valid and deserve consideration.

Many of their criticisms fall into broad categories. Let's deal with those 
first and then come back to some very specific suggestions for savings.

Teachers seem to believe their school districts have become top-heavy with 
over-paid administrators who don't contribute to classroom progress.

"For one day, I would like to sit in the administration building and see 
what these highly paid staffers do," one teacher wrote.

High school teachers – especially those in core academic subjects – seem to 
believe that school districts hire too many coaches who make too much money 
to do too little work.

"There are high school football coaches making what the governor of the 
state makes," one teacher wrote.

Teachers seem to believe that the state and school districts require 
students to take too many benchmarking tests to determine whether they know 
all the right stuff for their grade level. These are over and above the 
regular tests and quizzes that teachers give in class.

Each test costs money to administer and to keep track of scores.

"In the last two weeks, I've given four tests from the district and the 
state," one teacher said.

Several teachers reported big waste of paper wherever computers are hooked 
up to printers. Students call up a document on the Internet and 
automatically hit "print all" when all they need is a couple of pages.

"They use school printers and paper and ink cartridges to print things like 
party invitations, pictures of cars they want to buy, song lyrics, March 
Madness playoff brackets, personal e-mails and on and on," one teacher said.

Now, let's get to the specifics. According to teachers, we could save money 
by:

•Not sending teachers to staff development sessions during the school day 
while simultaneously hiring substitute teachers to watch the classes.

•Not sending coaches to state tournaments when their teams are not playing.

•Implementing paper recycling programs.

•Renovating old buildings instead of building new ones.

•Reviewing summer energy policies to make sure air conditioning is not 
wasted on empty buildings.

•Consolidating school districts where appropriate.

•Saving money on computer technology in lower elementary grades and 
spending more time on basic academic skills.

•Providing bus service only for kids who live two miles or more away from 
school.

•Using "free" in-house experts for teacher training sessions instead of 
paying outside experts.

•Closing the Texas-Mexico border to keep so many kids who don't speak 
English out of the public schools.

•Using free school district meeting rooms for teacher training and banquets 
instead of renting commercial space.

•Paying veteran teachers more to retain them instead of spending even more 
money to train new teachers to replace them.

•Requiring all administrators to teach one class a semester so they could 
see firsthand how programs are implemented and whether they work.

•Not buying motivational T-shirts for teachers during TAKS week.

•Not buying uniforms for students. Let parents buy them.

•Eliminating extra-curricular activities with low student participation.

•Allowing elementary schools to opt out of expensive reading programs such 
as Open Court and Harcourt Reading. Replace them with wonderful books that 
entice children to read and let teachers teach reading.

In closing, a couple of anecdotes bear repeating in full.

"We came back to school after a weekend and noticed our playground 
equipment had gotten a fabulous new paint job," one teacher wrote. 
"Everything looked shiny and neat. Two days later, they tore the entire 
playground down and replaced it with a new one."

And this from a teacher with a sense of humor.

"The principal used gifts to reinforce her current pet peeve. She gave us 
umbrellas with school colors and mascot because she didn't like teachers 
arriving late when weather was bad. One year, it was alarm clocks because 
she felt too many teachers arrived late and left early. The next year, we 
got attaché bags because she felt we were not committed enough to bring our 
work home with us."

Find more money-saving ideas and share your own at DallasNews.com/education

E-mail 
<mailto:your%20education%20questions%20to%20sparks at dallasnews.com>your 
education questions to sparks at dallasnews.com


Jonathan Coopersmith
Associate Professor
Dept. of History
MS 4236
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas  77843
979.845.8584
979.862.4314 fax

Secretary
History & Philosophy of Science Section (L)
American Association for the Advancement of Science
aaas.org 
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