New Math at DPS
Financial problems at Detroit Public Schools have largely been caused by poor financial management and worse planning. If the proposed budget for 2007-2008 is any indication, optimism trumps pragmatism at the district, and that can be dangerous when you’re dealing with billion-dollar budgets and children’s lives.
From the Detroit News:
Detroit Public Schools’ administration is proposing a $1.25 billion general fund budget for the 2007-08 school year that projects a 5,000-student loss, about half the annual student loss the district has been experiencing, according to a draft budget obtained by The Detroit News.
Some board members Sunday questioned the assumption that the student population loss will slow in the 116,000-student district during the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2008. A memo by Lamont Satchel, the interim general superintendent, said the district has lost 61,937 students since fall 2000.
“It seems like (the enrollment projection) is grossly underestimated based on trends of the last six years,” said board member Marie Thornton. “There are certain things in this budget I don’t particularly like.”
Yes, the new budget is lower than the $1.37 billion in actual expenditures for fiscal 2007, but the proposal calls for an increase in general administration costs from $9 million to $9.2 million. Board member Jonathan Kinloch justifiably finds that a little strange.
“The whole premise behind the closings and consolidations was to save money,” he said. “And if you are closing schools, I would believe the positions within general administration and school-based positions should be decreased.”
Kinloch said that in the current tough economic times the district is facing, “every dollar needs to be justified.”
Ya damn skippy. What was the point of shuttering 33 schools if you we aren’t going to save any money?
And as anyone who has ever been strapped for cash knows, the first step to controlling a budget is to get spending in line, and to figure out how to operate on less revenue. What indication is there that the exodus of students from the district will slow by half? None.
Is this the kind of financial management DPS students are being taught? There are lessons to be learned here, but it seems DPS administrators aren’t learning them.
