Finances, finances, finances

School Administrator, August, 2004 by Donald L. Kussmaul

As your new president, I face a challenging task when it comes to speaking to you about school finance. Let me give you my dilemma. It is the end of the school year as I write this piece and I am reflecting on the uncertain state of school finances in coming months and what these financial challenges mean for us as school system leaders.

Several states, including California and Connecticut, "have seen their fiscal health deteriorate," according to a February 2004 report by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Meanwhile, eight others, including Illinois, have smaller budget gaps, which means many superintendents may need to consider further budget-cutting measures when the states eventually work out their budgets. Budget-reduction measures such as the shortened school year that was considered this year in Oregon will occur in many school districts.

You will share my frustration that as many as half the nation's students may be directly shortchanged of the education they deserve, with the remainder not immune to the impact of belt tightening. As bad as that news is, last year at this time NCSL found 36 states with budget gaps.

On the other hand, NCLB and IDEA could be funded retroactively, which would help make up for last year's budget shortfalls that resulted from unfunded or underfunded mandates. If you are a school leader in one of the rare districts whose state legislature decided this summer to support quality education with adequate funding for all your schools, the future must look bright, so you can skip the remainder of this column. If you're not in that sunny camp, please continue and let me share my thoughts.

The lack of support and courage by congressional leaders to step up to the plate and meet their responsibilities over the past 30 years since the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is unconscionable. As you are well aware, 93 percent of educational funding in this country comes from local and state sources. The federal government provides a comparatively measly 7 percent of the revenue school districts de pend on, which in actual dollars translates to less than 2 percent of our nation's overall budget. That percentage has not grown dramatically in the 50 years since the feds came into the education picture with the launch of the school lunch program.

When the dollars flowed to local school districts in the post-Sputnik era of John Kennedy, school leaders acknowledged the fact that the federal government had become a player at the education table. What irks many educators is that a player can contribute 7 percent to the pot and drive the subjects tested, the grades tested and the score-keeping system for each state's accountability agenda through the passage and enforcement of the No Child Left Behind Act.

In 1964 then-Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner summed up the reasons behind the shift in power. I believe his observation remains fundamentally true even today. Kerner warned us: "Nothing passes from a lower level of government, for example, the local to the state or the state to the federal, unless that lower level of government has abdicated its responsibility." This statement is reflected 40 years later with NCLB legislation.

But before NCLB, many of us in educational leadership worked for passage of what today is known as IDEA--Public Law 94-142, also titled the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. We supported the law's creation because of a passion to see that all eligible children with special needs receive an appropriate education. Today we meet the mandates of IDEA even though the promised funding level of 40 percent of the national average per pupil expenditure has never flowed to meet the needs of the children.

Locally, however, school leaders do step to the plate each fall to open the doors to begin another school year. Tighter budgets may well mean larger class sizes in buildings that are in disrepair, it may mean students are forced to use tattered, outdated textbooks, that the arts programming has been stripped from the curriculum and that technology and computers are in short supply. These shortcomings are real and pervasive, but with dedicated leadership and the support of people who believe in our local schools, we get the job done to the best of our ability.

We can make a difference. We can no longer abdicate our responsibility to educate our nation and take only what is given; we must hold our lawmakers responsible for the support and resources to accomplish their mandates. We must Stand Up for Public Education--the Heart of Democracy.

Now be safe, be careful and get those doors open. Our nation depends on you.

Eighteen Assume Roles on AASA's Executive Committee

Sixteen members joined the newly expanded AASA Executive Committee and a new president and president-elect took office on July 1. Complete contact information for the committee members appears on AASA's website.

President

Donald L. Kussmaul

Superintendent

East Dubuque Unit School