Mueller Lake Park Outdoor Amphitheater
Solving the School Finance Problem Is Easy
RECEIVED Wed., May 5, 2004
Dear Editors,
Has anyone else noticed that schools behave just like the Department of Defense did years ago, always wanting more money? And more money.
Any fool can spend unlimited, ever-increasing amounts of money. But it takes a professional manager to produce a quality product within a limited budget. Most businesses, the ones that survive, learn that quickly.
Cut school budgets by 10%. I would do what businesses do, and tell the school administrators that if they are unable to do a quality job within the budget, that I would find someone who could. It is amazing how well that works.
Most of all, they need to do what most businesses did 20-25 years ago, and that is "flatten" middle management, removing the many layers of bureaucracy that add a lot of paper-shuffling, distractions, and cost, but little or no value. The excesses are not in the classrooms, but in the so-called management and administration.
The effect on property taxes could be dramatically reduced by using the above techniques and by requiring that appraisal districts use the same techniques that professional realtors use in valuing rental properties: simply 100 times the monthly rent, instead of the convoluted, "fuzzy math" formulas they use to add another 25% to the valuations. Limit increases to 3% per year after reducing and capping the maximum rates.
Finally, chief appraisers and executives should be elected and not appointed, which would eliminate the "taxpayer is the enemy mentality." Who knows, we might be able to cut the costs of the appraisal districts and let their employees actually get out in the real workforce and do something productive.
Last, but not least, appeals should be to justices of the peace, and not to district courts, which currently preclude almost everyone from being able to afford the so-called appeals process.
Has anyone else noticed that schools behave just like the Department of Defense did years ago, always wanting more money? And more money.
Any fool can spend unlimited, ever-increasing amounts of money. But it takes a professional manager to produce a quality product within a limited budget. Most businesses, the ones that survive, learn that quickly.
Cut school budgets by 10%. I would do what businesses do, and tell the school administrators that if they are unable to do a quality job within the budget, that I would find someone who could. It is amazing how well that works.
Most of all, they need to do what most businesses did 20-25 years ago, and that is "flatten" middle management, removing the many layers of bureaucracy that add a lot of paper-shuffling, distractions, and cost, but little or no value. The excesses are not in the classrooms, but in the so-called management and administration.
The effect on property taxes could be dramatically reduced by using the above techniques and by requiring that appraisal districts use the same techniques that professional realtors use in valuing rental properties: simply 100 times the monthly rent, instead of the convoluted, "fuzzy math" formulas they use to add another 25% to the valuations. Limit increases to 3% per year after reducing and capping the maximum rates.
Finally, chief appraisers and executives should be elected and not appointed, which would eliminate the "taxpayer is the enemy mentality." Who knows, we might be able to cut the costs of the appraisal districts and let their employees actually get out in the real workforce and do something productive.
Last, but not least, appeals should be to justices of the peace, and not to district courts, which currently preclude almost everyone from being able to afford the so-called appeals process.
Best regards,
Chuck McMullen
Chuck McMullen
