On November 21, 2017, Governor Mary Fallin issued an Executive Order which read in part "I, Mary Fallin, Governor of State of Oklahoma, pursuant to the power and authority vested in me by sections 1 and 2 of Article VI of the Oklahoma Constitution hereby direct as follows:
By September 1, 2018, and every year thereafter, the State Board of Education... shall compile a list of every public school district that spends less than sixty percent (60%) of their budget on instructional expenditures.
The State Board of Education... shall notify school districts that are designated for administrative consolidation or annexation by July 1, 2019.
... school districts designated for administrative consolidation or annexation shall submit a plan for administrative consolidation or annexation to the Superintendent and State Board of Education. If a plan is not submitted by the school district, the State Board of Education... shall determine a plan for consolidation or annexation...
Funds saved as a result of administrative consolidation or annexation shall be retained by the school district and reallocated for instructional expenditures.
On the evening of November 21, 2017, Shawn Hime (Executive Director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association) and Rooney Virgin (Director of Legislative Services for the OSSBA), issued the following response to Governor Fallin's Executive Order:
Members,
Late this afternoon, Gov. Fallin issued three executive orders, including one that puts in place a process to force administrative consolidation of Oklahoma schools...
... the move was clearly political theatre and a distraction from the state's serious fiscal crisis. OSSBA's legal team believes the executive order is on shaky constitutional ground and exceeds the governor's authority.
On December 11, 2017, in Governor Fallin's new Oklahoma Now column, she states: Teacher salaries need to be increased in the state of Oklahoma. This is a simple fact, especially as we compare our teacher compensation to surrounding states...,
For the past two years I have called for a teacher pay increase in my State of the State addresses, but there has not been a solution to this challenge. We must address this issue if we expect to continue to be a prosperous state...
After stating how she has advocated for teacher pay raises for the last two years of her eight year term, Governor Fallin goes on to state just how she will pay for those teacher raises as she says The state of Oklahoma has a role in increasing the salaries of teachers... BUT local school districts also have a responsibility to increase the compensation of teachers. In late November, I signed an executive order to begin thoughtful conversations about local budgets, cost saving efficiencies, and how school districts could send more dollars to classrooms...
"...We have to ensure more existing dollars are reaching every classroom by tackling administrative efficiencies head-on."
My executive order directs the OSBE...to compile a list of school districts that spend less than 60 percent of their budget on instructional expenditures... in other words, no more than 40% should go to non-classroom expenses. ... the (OSBE)... will recommend actions to enhance cost-sharing efficiencies between schools by July 2019.
This action is intended to encourage administrators and school boards to intensely review school district budgets.
I agree with Shawn Hime concerning Fallin's 1st Executive Order that "the move was clearly political theatre..." used as a distraction for the real budget crisis. But "the Order" was political theatre in the sense that she attempted to "throw corporate lawmakers a bone" in order to persuade them to vote for a balanced budget which relies on recurring revenue. The "bone" Governor Fallin has thrown corporate legislators is our public schools on a silver platter. Knowing this is the number one accomplishment in most corporate bucket lists, she has tried to appease them with a gut punch to our public schools. Like Shawn Hime said (the Order) puts in place the process to force administrative consolidation" or annexation.
In Oklahoma Now, Fallin explains her Executive order a little differently, as she later on said the Order was and is intended to encourage (intimidate) administrators and boards to intensely review school district budgets (We can ensure the public and Governor Fallin that we've been "intensely reviewing" our budgets for decades now). In other words, we can study the data we've already studied, and then send our plans for consolidation or annexation to the State Board (and if we don't do it, Governor Fallin will do it for us.
I know Blanchard Schools will comply with the Order, so I'll proceed to lay out our "study and review plans" to be compliant (a good little school). We'd first like to thank Dr. Rick Cobb, Superintendent of Mid-Del, for compiling a list of schools in decreasing order of Instructional expenditures from the highest to the lowest (67.4% Instruction to 21.7% Instruction). The data indicates that 102 school districts spent more than 60% (the grail) for instruction, but 382 districts fell short (a big fat 'F' in corporate lawmakers minds). This data indicates that 382 schools must plan for consolidation or annexation, or face the guillotene.
In avoiding the death penalty (forced consolidation), I'll review only Blanchard Public Schools' expenditure data as listed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) from 2013-2014, since this seems to be the federal set of data that corporate lawmakers prefer:
Blanchard
Total students - 1937
Instructional expenditure - 55%
Instructional expenditures include, but are not limited to: regular certified salaries, unused sick leave for certified staff, regular non-certified salaries, stipends, health and accident insurance for certified personnel, FICA-employers contribution, district paid retirement for certified staff (non-administrative), retirement- employers contribution (non-administrative) etc.
* Non-discretionary - 5%
* Discretionary - 95%
Student and staff support - 15%
Student and staff support expenditures include, but are not limited to: Guidance Services, Medical Services, Occupational Therapy, Psychological Services, Speech Pathology Services, Extra-Duty Certified Student Support Services, Instructional Staff Training Services, Library/Media Services, Instruction Related Technology, etc.
* Non-discretionary - 50%
* Discretionary - 50%
District Administration - 3%
District Administration expenditures, the real target for Governor Fallin and corporate lawmakers, include, but are not limited to: Board Clerk, Deputy Clerk, and Minute Clerk Services, Board Treasurer Services, Election Services, Legal Services, Audit Services, County Visual Inspection Services, Office of the Superintendent Services, Other General and Administrative Services, etc..
* Non-Discretionary - 90%
* Discretionary - 10%
Operations/Food Service - 27%
Operations/Food Services expenditures include, but are not limited to: Business Office, Tax Assessment and Collection Services, Communication Services, Personnel Services, Operation of Building Services, Care and Upkeep of Grounds Services, Vehicle Repair and Maintenance Services, Safety Services, Vehicle Operation Services, Monitoring Services, Vehicle Servicing and Maintenance Services, Food and Milk Purchasing, Food Preparation and Dispensing Services, Food and Supplies Dispensing Services, Food and Supplies Delivery Services, Food and Milk Purchases for Reimbursable Student Meals, Land Acquisition Services (for new high school), Debt Service (for new high school), etc.
* Non-Discretionary - 30%
* Discretionary - 70%
Total expenditures - 100%
(* Represents the approximate percentage of discretionary spending, "not legally required", and non-discretionary, "legally required", spending for each category.)
An analysis of the above data indicates the following: In order to provide more funding to Instruction, Operations/Food Service is the category to "rob" in order to accomplish this task (Rob Peter to pay Paul), because it has a higher percentage of "discretionary" spending as well as the second highest level of overall spending (just behind Instruction). The Governor and corporate lawmakers want the public to believe that the category to "rob" is District Administration, even though total "Administrative costs" at 3% is extremely low, and discretionary spending for District Administration is approximately 10% (.7% of total district expenditures).
To comply with Governor Fallin's Executive Order, the school board will begin a "thoughtful conversation" concerning "tackling Administrative inefficiencies head on" at our January regular board meeting. If Blanchard Public Schools were able to actually "rob Peter to pay Paul" and transfer .7% in discretionary administrative costs to Instruction, our Instructional percentage would rise to only 55.7%, far short of Governor Fallin's Executive Order (60%). It's reasonable to assume that Operations/ Food Service at 27% of all district expenditures as well as 90% discretionary, would be the category to reduce and transfer to Instruction. But as Governor Fallin wrote in her Executive Order, we must tackle administrative efficiencies head-on (which is illegal in the NFL) and funds must be saved as a result of administrative consolidation or annexation. We must assume, therefore, that reducing any other expenditure category is outlawed by the governor and her corporate allies in the legislature.
Let's explore another way to increase instruction.. one which involves a little common sense and basic math skills (something that seems to be lacking in the governors office and corporate lawmakers: This pathway to increased Instructional expenditures involves increasing gross production tax to 7%, the rate at which it once was, and eliminating Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which I mentioned in another post. The increase in GPT from the current 2% to 7%, would yield approximately $1,176,470 for Blanchard Instruction.. while eliminating TIF in Oklahoma would yield approximately $882,353 = a total of $2,058,823 added to Blanchard Instructional expenditures.So, instead of spending $7,045,000 for Instruction (55% of total expenditures), Blanchard Schools could spend $9,103,823, or 71% for Instruction. This scenario for increasing Instructional expenditures is unlikely to unfold as Governor Fallin wants to consolidate schools.
So, this column represents the intensive review as ordered by Fallin by utilizing corporate gazinta math (Jethro demonstrated his knowledge of "gazintas" to Uncle Jed of The Beverly Hillbillies - "one gazinta two, two times.. etc") and NCES data. As most analysts can see, Blanchard Public Schools are doomed to be consolidated or annexed to surrounding schools. I think I'll start working on our consolidation/annexation plan early, so as to not be in violation of the Executive Order...
The Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce has just announced a "thinking outside the box" school revenue source which doesn't involve tax increases! The Chairman of the Oklahoma State Chamber has stated in a Capitol news conference that he's discovered the holy grail of increased public school revenue - "a more streamlined school system, that would benefit greatly from ... district annexations and consolidations." I'm surprised that no corporate lawmakers came up with this original idea for increasing funding to school instruction, but not really... because this "original idea" is from a Daily Oklahoman article dated August 8, 1989. No less than three commissions, task forces, or committees have presented findings to governors and state legislators since then, but corporate lawmakers and state chambers have not accepted the results - so continue to beat the school consolidation drum. Flash forward to December 18, 2017, 28 years later:
The Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce has, once again, recommended to lawmakers that public schools be annexed and consolidated as a way to increase teacher pay and as an additional revenue source, as part of its Strategic Initiative Plan (SIP the kool-aid) - "In the area of education, the recommendation includes creation of a commission to make data-based recommendations on school consolidation." What earth shattering news! The State Chamber has joined Governor Mary Fallin in calling for the annexation or consolidation of most public school districts in Oklahoma. So, the beat goes on...
No comments:
Post a Comment