Big thinking from Chalkboard's Sue Hildick

The Chalkboard Project's Sue Hildick says that, in these perilous economic times, schools "...need to be alert for every efficiency."

What sort of efficiency?  Well, how about saving $20 million on more efficient student busing?  Sounds good, eh? 

Of course that's an efficiency --the $20 million-- for every K-12 district in the state.  When you stop to consider that in 2006-2007, according to the Chalkboard's own site, total spending on K-12 schools was $4,765,572,498 --that's 4.7 billion dollars-- then the $20 million busing efficiency seems like pretty small potatoes. 

Chump change, in fact.   According to my math (go ahead and double check it, if you must) that works out to about .4  percent of the total amount Oregon spends on K-12 schools each year.  Or to put it another way, if Hildick and other wasteful spending watchdogs found 250 such examples of inefficient school spending, kids could go to school at absolutely no taxpayer expense. 

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has a better idea --teachers teaching for free.  If teachers were willing to teach without pay for an entire year, Oregon's educational budget could be slashed by 60 or 70 percent.

That's a helluva lot better than .4 percent.

But then there's this whole problem of economic stimulus, which President Obama says happens when the government spends money.  Not paying bus drivers --or teachers-- sounds like a great idea until you factor in the stimulus effect. 

I mean, how much can you goose the economy if you have no money to spend? 

Comments

[Craig]

So, your point is what? Spend the money even if it's wasteful or inefficient? Let them eat cake? Or what?

[anne t.]

What Sue Hildick and her corporate buddies at Chalkboard will NEVER recommend is fair taxation of corporations.

[Terry]

Actually my point is that all this quibbling over crumbs distracts people from the real problem here in Oregon --we have a revenue problem, not a spending problem.

I assume that some of the bus efficiencies would come in the form of bus drivers' jobs --hardly a way to stimulate the economy. Which is the real point of the post.

[Craig]

I had never heard of Sue Hildick or Chalkboard, but you tweaked my curiousity, so I went ahead and read the link you cited in your first paragraph.

The link cites a study commissioned by the Oregon Board of Education. The link does not go into details of how the study proposes to save $20 million in school busing, but the link also does not propose "not paying bus drivers or teachers."

The first sentence in Hildick's article, in fact, is "Because of the state's budget crisis, it's important for education advocates to encourage legislators to continue funding K-12 adequately."

That doesn't sound like someone who is advocating not spending what it takes to fund education, just someone who is, sensibly, trying to find ways to be efficient along the way.

[Terry]

It's Kulongoski who suggested that teachers work for free in order to keep the schools open the full year.

Hildick and the Chalkboard always ramble on about funding schools adequately, but they never do anything about it.

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