May 23--IF THE regional economy is rebounding, however slowly, someone forgot to tell the area's school districts. Local boards of education continue to approve or contemplate layoffs of teachers to help balance their recession-battered budgets.
A proposal before Congress would provide $23 billion in federal aid to local school districts to help avert teacher layoffs. The legislation is worth supporting -- but only if it includes strict guidelines to ensure the new tax money does not merely bail out mismanaged school systems or enrich me-first unions.
Although Toledo Public Schools' fiscal miseries are generating most of the local attention, smaller districts are suffering as well. The Sylvania Board of Education is considering the layoffs of 49 school employees -- teachers, aides, and support staff. Perrysburg's school board last month approved pink slips for 43 employees, including nine teachers.
Things are just as bad across the state line in Michigan. Last week, Bedford Public Schools authorized the layoffs of 46 classroom teachers. Monroe's schools are eliminating 35 jobs, including those of 20 teachers.
In Toledo, school board members are figuratively (so far) checking under seat cushions for loose change, as the district's projected deficit for next school year has grown to as much as $34 million within an operating budget of roughly $290 million. The teachers union complains that the district is thinking of laying off 55 teachers without proposing equivalent administrative cuts.
To an extent, the region's school districts are grappling with circumstances beyond their control. Local property tax revenue and state school aid have plummeted in the past few years because of the dismal economy, and are likely to continue to fall.
The first batch of federal stimulus money for schools, some $54 billion, is about gone. Meanwhile, districts' operating costs continue to grow.
It's hard to think of a budget cut that has a more immediate impact on classroom instruction than the loss of a teacher. That's why the new package of emergency federal aid to preserve teacher jobs, which the Obama Administration supports, could be a prudent investment.
But tough conditions need to accompany the new money. Most of all, local districts must show clearly how they would use it, and what sort of self-help they are willing to practice to qualify for it.
About three-quarters of every school district's budget goes to employee compensation. During this year's TPS budget crisis, district employees, whether represented by unions or not, have resisted meaningful economic concessions even more firmly than their counterparts in city government.
District leaders have not pursued such sacrifice, preferring to make spending cuts that will require larger classes and otherwise impair the quality of education for the system's 26,000 students. That imbalance can't continue, and it surely can't be rewarded with more tax dollars.
Districts that seek a share of the new federal aid also should be required to demonstrate how they propose to control long-term expenses, including the costs of employee benefits and pensions.
The proposed federal legislation is called the Keep Our Educators Working Act. We'd amend that to read: "Working -- and Accountable."
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