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Thursday, February 18, 2010
Boomer with Attitude / News CMS' money woes: the obvious, maybe only, solution
Posted By John Grooms on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 1:36 PM
There’s one obvious fix for CMS’ money woes, but no one’s talking about it. If the role of education in the life of the city is to be taken seriously, somebody has to at least bring up the most obvious answer. So here we go.
Superintendent Peter Gorman told the school board last night that CMS faces draconian cuts — on top of this year’s cuts and layoffs — unless more money is forthcoming. "The thought of a strategic cut so it won't impact kids is not possible at this point," Gorman told them. He’s talking about cutting up to 658 teachers, closing some schools, and eliminating busing for magnet schools — as a first step. Middle school sports could also be in jeopardy, although nobody’s said anything yet about saving money by cutting out the nearly useless CMS television channel.
This situation isn’t just troublesome; if the cuts being talked about are made, it will be tragic. Tragic for the laid off teachers, yes, but doubly tragic for students, who don’t deserve to be shortchanged by a crisis they didn’t create. And “tragic” doesn’t begin to describe what severe cuts to CMS would do to the soul of a city that was once so proud of its public education system.
So here’s my solution: After Gorman is through cutting the downtown administrative staff, the CMS board has to ask the county commission to raise property taxes, and the commission has to do it. Nobody wants a tax raise, needless to say, but folks, it’s our school system — one of the most important parts of any local government, and one of the most essential for the city’s future. It’s not something you want to play political penny-pinching games with (although it’s already happening, with Queen McGarry and her sidekick Rhonda Lemmon, already shrugging their shoulders over the potential plight of the city’s poorer schools).
County Commission chair Jennifer Roberts should appoint a couple of hotshot analysts to see what kinds of cuts can be made to the schools without damaging students’ — any students’ — education. Meanwhile, she should work to build a political consensus for raising taxes enough to at least allow CMS continue providing its present level of service to students. This is important, folks; as in, “being grownups and getting down to business” important. Let the school board and the county commission know how you feel.
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