3/4/09 

Columbus Dispatch Editorial 

Because Gov. Ted Strickland’s budget is propped up by federal stimulus funds, the state risks unleashing a fiscal monster when the budget period ends in two years and that extra money is gone. The Columbus City School District, looking at its own federal-stimulus windfall, has the chance to do better.

The Columbus Board of Education already made the hard choices necessary to create a budget based on the revenues it expected the district to receive. That budget included no increase in state or federal funding. Board members should not let a one-time pot of money undermine these efforts.

But that’s just what will happen if school officials succumb to the pressure they’ll be getting to use stimulus money to pad the payroll, keep underused schools open and prop up programs that couldn’t be sustained with normal revenues.

The district could receive nearly $75 million more than it expected from the state plus $64 million from the federal stimulus package. The state money is part of a prescriptive plan, so the district will have little latitude in spending it.

The federal money, however, represents an opportunity to invest in improvements that the district needs but couldn’t afford otherwise.

One good idea would be to acquire the information-technology system the district long has needed. Missing inventory, miscategorized funds and major payroll mistakes all have been attributed to a poorly coordinated set of computer systems that don’t talk to each other. Just as important, an excellent system and training on how to use it could improve greatly the district’s ability to use academic-performance data to diagnose strengths and weakness and target improvement efforts.

Another sound investment might be summer training for teachers, both in their academic subject areas and in teaching methods. Making Columbus teachers more effective is a smart way to improve students’ achievement. Leadership training for principals, empowering them to use data and make better decisions for their schools, could yield similar improvements.

What the board should not allow is for the money to pay for staff positions that will be unaffordable when the windfall is gone. No matter how beneficial it would be to have more classroom aides or hire more teachers and guidance counselors, adding such positions without a permanent way to pay for them is fiscal folly.

The district should not abandon the promises it made to the voters who approved an operating levy and capital-improvements bond issue in November. The board promised to live within the proceeds of that levy until 2012. Doing so, the board said, will require closing at least six schools by June 2011 and trimming $76 million from current expenses by June 2013.

Board members should not back away from those school closings and budget cuts.

After years of sharp enrollment declines, as students defected to charter schools, the district wastes a lot of money by operating more buildings than it needs. Its future financial health depends on right-sizing its inventory of buildings. Using stimulus money to keep some open for another year or two only delays necessary changes.

Board members should make the most of this opportunity by seeking expert advice on how to invest the stimulus money. Much of it, about $46 million, will come through the Title I program, aimed at helping disadvantaged students. Special-education programs will receive $18 million.

Detailed rules for spending haven’t been issued yet, but the fact that most Columbus students qualify as disadvantaged suggests that the district should have broad latitude in spending the Title I money.

The board and Superintendent Gene Harris have been well-served by other panels through which community and business leaders lent their expertise on other matters, including planning for new schools. They should turn to that proven model again for this unprecedented opportunity.