Politics and Power Trump Good Ideas
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is in the midst of adjusting its budget to new economic realities. Tax revenues are reduced and will remain at lower levels for years to come. Higher tax rates, being counter productive both economically and politically will remain at current levels, which means local governments and agencies will have to adjust to having less to spend. CMS has the most adjusting to do, as it has been the most profligate of all local governments. A bit of history is justified here, a reminder if you will, that there were those who warned of this future and the true costs of policies past.
The villain of this story is former Mecklenburg Commissioners Chairman Parks Helms. He had the unparalleled ability to say “yes” to every possible government request, while appearing reasonable to the voters. Every tax increase was accompanied by the ubiquitous story of “it’s only a hamburger a week”. His quest was to spend every dime he could on buildings and land and salaries and wasteful government programs. He accomplished much. Debt on the taxpayers steadily increased under his watch and will remain onerous long after his passing. Truly, an outstanding accomplishment.
In this he was joined by the current CMS superintendent and his predecessors. There was John Murphy, Eric Smith, James Pughsley, and now Peter Gorman. Having no sense of social responsibility, their only goal was personal pay and abusing the taxpayers. If even half of what each of them said was true, if half of the programs they started accomplished the propaganda associated therewith, every student would be making straight A’s. But they don’t. And the interesting part is, as soon as a superintendent leaves, the public (the press) forgets about his promises as if they were never made. But the wasteful programs gain a life of their own and continue to bleed the taxpayers.
Which returns us to Parks Helms. He was partisan to the core. If a good idea was proposed by a Democrat, Helms was all for it. If it were by a Republican, it would never see the light of day. A case in point, which is germane to today’s situation, was the Pay-As-You-Go Plan composed by Republican Commissioner Joel Carter. A workable plan, the idea was to reduce borrowing for capital construction. Over a period of time the county debt would be reduced and be replaced by current spending. Because of the nature of this plan, today the county would have a much smaller financial problem, as all they would have to do would be reduce capital spending. No layoffs, no pay cuts.
But Helms would have no long-range fiscal sanity in his life. Fiscal sanity proposed by a Republican would not be considered. Helms would do nothing to help the taxpayers or future county employees.
Today is the future. Facing budget restraints, Gorman proposes teacher layoffs. This proposal, as is typical of a politician in superintendent clothing, is designed to enrage the public and hurt everyone except the higher-level bureaucrats. Now comes District 2 School Board Representative Richard McElrath with a proposition to cut everyone’s pay. No one loses a job. Classroom teacher/student ratios remain the same. The superintendent doesn’t like it. Why? He comes up with the excuse that those who take pay cuts may make legal protest. Let them. If they protest, lay them off. See which they like better.
But if you treat everyone the same, what is the problem? The problem is, as it has always been, the pay of high-level bureaucrats. They, being in it for the money, are not interested in helping anyone except themselves. The superintendent, being in it solely for the money, is not interested in some fiscally sane idea being used in his sandbox.
McElrath is a retired schoolteacher. He is concerned about the students to the exclusion of all else. But to teach students you need teachers, not bureaucrats. His proposal keeps all the teachers. The superintendent, if he were interested, would seek ways to make this happen. So far he has not. In my opinion he will not. He will not because he doesn’t care about the students. Since he doesn’t care about the students, he doesn’t care about the teachers. He cares about himself. It’s all about the money. He is no different than superintendents past, which is why we still have programs that don’t work, but keep getting funded. And he has his own proposals for how to make everything wonderful. Just ask him, but don’t forget the paycheck.
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