Home of Today's Common Sense

Published in Brownsville Herald Sent 2/11/2004
Recently I wrote and you published my “Letter to The Editor” entitled Give The Teachers Support. I have been motivated to reconsider my less than bright hopes for improvement, relative to recent actions of our new Superintendent of Schools.
I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Zolkoski’s plans and expectations and to speak to him directly for a few moments at a Community Coffee hosted by IBC Bank on February 11. His clear understanding of the problems and his direct “no spin” responses to issues lead me to the belief that if he is given the appropriate unfettered authority, he can and will make our school system what it should be.

I had the opportunity to ask him his perceptions concerning educational funding now that taxpayers are more and more reluctant to approve any new expenditure that would require a tax increase. This has been evidenced by more and more bond issues being voted down at the polls.
Dr. Zolkoski correctly pointed out that the mountain of mandates, reporting requirements, etc. that are a part of every new piece of legislation, regulation and procedure dreamed up by the State and Federal bureaucracies, add an enormous financial burden to our already difficult budgets. He estimated that if the impact of only 5 mandates were removed or reduced there would easily be more than adequate funding.
We need to secure state or federal funding to pay the expenses of their requirements or remove them. This would also mean that judges must provide for the costs of their decisions that result in additional expenditures where that expenditure was not caused by a managerial impropriety.
We also need to encourage our legislators to un-legislate some of the wonderful programs they gave us that are no longer needed but still have bureaucracies perpetuating them and to remove mandated requirements when the costs of administration outweigh the benefit or they cannot completely fund the costs for them.
We are now beginning an election cycle and have the opportunity to do something about the problem. Those of us who have the good fortune to be able to contribute to the campaigns of our candidates should aggressively make it known that they are killing our educational system with kindness in the form of wonderful programs that bring costly administration and requirements that we cannot afford. The rest of us can certainly let our candidates know the importance we place on the education of our young people and to stop helping us so expensively.
What is the alternative?? Transfer some of the responsibility for education to private institutions. Perhaps they can do the job more efficiently because there is less government interference. Maybe it is time for a voucher system similar to that in Canada, if our public servants can’t get it right.