A Boatload Of Bureaucrats

June 1, 2010 | Written by Mark Pellin

As Mecklenburg County commissioners sift through the rubble of the county manager’s recommended budget, looking for places to tap cuts that could help save teachers’ jobs, there’s one data set that ought to jump screaming off the page.

As of last December, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools had amassed an astounding 109 Central Administration positions that cost the district a staggering $13.6-million. The school board-approved budget request calls for cutting 25 of them, in the best-case scenario, to 49 in the worst.

By comparison, CMS’s vaunted participation in the Teach For America program cost nearly $10.2-million in salaries and benefits for 226 teachers for the current school year, along with an additional $510,000 for a so-called TFA “service fee.”

Why CMS needs an army of administrators swarming the Ed Shed is anybody’s guess; but 109 bureaucrats is a mind-twisting number by any standard.

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