Will the Governor's Executive Order spell the end of the LHS band program?
Category: Local...
Posted Monday, August 22, 2005 at 04:23 PM [GMT-6]

Texas Governor Rick Perry today issued an executive order requiring all state school districts to alter their budgets so that at least 65% of their funds are spent on "direct classroom education."

Here's how the Texas Insider characterized Perry's justification of this order:

Despite intense opposition to the “65 percent rule” by school administrators, Perry said that the 65 percent requirement is "reasonable" and only those intent on spending more tax dollars on activities other than direct classroom expenditures would oppose it.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out locally. In an article in yesterday's MRT, Midland Lee High School band director Randy Storie was reported as saying that the move would be disastrous for the band program:

If the rule takes effect, Lee High School band director Randy Storie said his program would shut down. He said band doesn't have enough money now for things like repairs and new instruments.

That seems a little dramatic. Steve Buck, LHS tennis coach and president of the Midland Federation of Teachers has a more measured take:

"I don't think kids and parents would stand for that (cuts to extracurricular activities)," said Buck, who coached and taught at the college level. "We're going to see a lot of other cuts before that happens."

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where those are going to come from. It's going to come from auxiliary personnel, support staff and administration. Where the rubber meets the road is the kids."

Buck said he's talked to Superintendent Robert Nicks about starting an athletic foundation to support athletics. He said it would take 18 months to four years for schools statewide to become self-supporting.

[The foundation idea is an interesting concept, by the way. On the plus side, it provides a way for those who want to have more control over how their money is spent to better direct their investments. On the negative side, it has the potential to widen the gap between "haves" and "have nots."]

It's hard to argue that classroom efforts wouldn't benefit from more money, although money in and of itself isn't the panacea some will claim. But it's also a mite difficult to swallow yet more micromanaging from the state, particularly when the micromanagers have yet to provide any worthwhile assistance in helping to fund these kinds of mandates.

A seeming benefit of Perry's order is a provision requiring more transparency by school districts in reporting how they're spending their money. Again, from the Texas Insider:

The accountability measure will require schools to account for non-classroom expenditures including funds used for school district operations not related to direct instruction, including counseling services, technology, nursing and social services. In addition, funds used for maintenance, repair, and construction of school district facilities, and those used for professional development and related purposes will be closely monitored.

I guess we'll find out how sophisticated MISD's accounting system is. This kind of reporting should be a simple as aggregating accounts in a different fashion, but I suspect it will end up being more work than that. The real issue comes with the phrase "closely monitored." What will that entail and who will do it?

I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more about this, and soon.

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