Posted on 06/20/2002 1:44:15 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Though Atlanta Public Schools owns empty school buildings, it has broken ground on a $45 million central office. The construction comes at a time when the city of Atlanta is grappling with such severe financial crisis that the city this week fired 66 sanitation workers.
When Johnny Brown takes over as DeKalb school superintendent in two weeks, he'll be joined by five employees from his previous post in Birmingham, including a secretary. Brown's own $225,000 base salary represents the highest in the state for a school superintendent.
In most metro communities, school boards have managed to avoid much of the anger about rising taxes directed at city councils and mayors, even though well over half of the property taxes paid by homeowners go to the schools. The new emphasis on school accountability, however, is drawing increasing attention to school spending and what is being accomplished with all those millions of tax dollars. The DeKalb County school board adopted a $706.5 million operating budget for next year; the Atlanta budget is $532 million.
More people -- especially the expanding number of empty nesters and taxpayers without kids -- are questioning whether school administrators are making any efforts to cut costs in these economic hard times.
So far, there's little evidence that local school systems are taking the frustration to heart. They defend their escalating budgets by pointing to polls showing that voters want better schools. "The only thing I hear from citizens is fix the schools," says Atlanta Superintendent Beverly Hall.
Residents are indeed committed to improving schools, which explains why Atlantans and voters in Fulton, DeKalb, Henry and Coweta counties and in the city of Decatur in March approved extension of a 1 percent sales tax to build more schools and renovate others for another five years. But with that money comes an expectation of significant improvement in test scores and student performance.
Even systems that traditionally enjoy strong public support are discovering that taxpayers are running out of money and patience. In Gwinnett, some parents are questioning the money and time spent developing the Gateway tests in light of the mandated state curriculum tests. Marietta taxpayers are still miffed over cost overruns for their $57 million high school. And earlier this month, a group of irate taxpayers sued the Decatur school board, demanding that the system tap reserve funds for its budget rather than raise taxes.
All school systems bristle at the notion that they're wasting a single penny of taxpayers' money. A DeKalb spokesman defends the importation of staff from Birmingham, saying Brown is not creating new jobs for former colleagues, but filling existing ones. In fact, says spokesman Spencer Ragsdale, Brown plans to propose the consolidation and elimination of "dozens of administration jobs . . . between the schoolhouse and his office."
Hall says the new Atlanta central office was in the works long before she arrived, and that no current school property could meet the needs of the 615 employees at the system's headquarters. While the $45 million price tag sounds extravagant, she says the planned building is no Taj Mahal and the figure covers all the furnishings.
With per pupil spending creeping up to the level of Atlanta's toniest private schools, public schools have a lot to prove to taxpayers. First on the list ought to be an acknowledgment that taxes are a finite resource.
Din, ding, ding!
$45 million is spent on a new facility, the head of the school board makes $225,000 a year, and we hear complaints of not enough funding for education.
Yep, this is criminal.
Just another example of the ruling class elite becoming ever more unaccountable. This is way over the top and has nothing to do with improving education for a single student.
Richard W.
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