Cutting off the hand to spite the foot

yes Daniela Fairchild / March 29, 2011

As state and district education budgets shrink, it becomes doubly important to scrutinize line items, to think through cuts, and to trim fat in ways that won't negatively affect schoolchildren. Moore County, North Carolina seems to have missed that memo. ?The district is set to close one of its smaller elementary schools, Academy Heights.

From today's Wall Street Journal:

Academy Heights Elementary boasts a 98% pass rate on state exams, has an award-winning math program, and is ranked the second-best kindergarten-to-fifth-grade school in North Carolina. Yet it is slated to close at the end of the school year. Moore County Schools Superintendent Susan Purser said shutting down the school and sending its 265 children to nearby campuses was a ?painful last resort? to close an $8.2 million budget gap.

Closing high-achieving Academy Heights?the district's only year-round school?will save Moore County $500,000. Surely not chump change, but far off the $8.2 million in excess spending that needs to be leeched out of the budget lines. And surely not enough to justify shuttering the district's most successful school, possibly losing some of the district's most successful teachers, and almost guaranteeing 265 students an inferior education.

Scaling back budgets is an unenviable task. But before we open up the throttle on the budget-cuts train, let's make sure it's railed on the correct track. Take off the blinders, and actually look at how cuts will affect the kids. There are some smart ideas and how-tos out there.

?Daniela Fairchild

Category: School Finance