McAuliffe Takes Aim At Education Spending

educationHere comes the reform of the reform…

McAuliffe took direct aim at the findings of a new report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission that said local spending on education — at 56 percent of the cost — is the 11th highest local share in the country, as the state has retreated on K-12 funding since the recession.

The governor estimated that local school systems have 5,000 fewer teaching positions than in 2008, despite growing enrollment, increasing numbers of students for whom English is a second language, and higher testing standards.

“We’ve put three new burdens on and at the same time we’ve reduced by 5,000 positions,” he said. “That doesn’t work.”

Problem is: (1) enrollment is decreasing in rural localities, (2) unfunded mandates to localities mean more administrators and fewer teacher pay increases, and (3) even though the state has cut, local governments have been forced to dramatically increase their own contributions to public education.

Meanwhile, more and more Virginia families are pulling their children out of public schools (a net benefit to local education, as the locality keeps education funds per pupil without diverting a dime or providing scant services to private, parochial, or home school students), test scores have yet to correspond with increasing investment, and we continue to misuse a 19th century school system with 20th century tools and expect a 21st century product.

The solution ought to be to take the Local Composite Index (LCI) and use that as a maximum contribution expected from the localities rather than a minimum threshold, while asking the state to take on the full responsibility of its constitutional obligations:

The General Assembly shall provide for a system of free public elementary and secondary schools for all children of school age throughout the Commonwealth, and shall seek to ensure that an educational program of high quality is established and continually maintained.

That is a state responsibility, not a local one, as local governments must resort to the most punitive of taxation methods — namely real estate and property taxes — to fund what is often times their largest employer with enormous political clout.  Best of luck if you’re a small government conservative trying to rein in wasteful spending…

…a conversation that, under this rubric, would fall to local school boards to work within the means established by Richmond, not 134 balkanized localities.

The best part about such a reform is that it would weld accountability to resources.  Richmond holds the keys, Richmond sets the mandates, Richmond sets the rules, and Richmond pays the tab.  As it stands today, localities are used as a pressure valve… and already tax-strapped local governments are simply the wrong tools for the job.

Of course, the only way this truly works is if local governments — once the local tax windfall comes — actually lowers taxes in response to Richmond’s accumulation of the responsibility (much like the 1930s when Richmond took over the state transportation system).

Yet much like transportation, one would imagine that the renewed focus and investment would offer tangible results… so long as education in Virginia remains focused on excellence, and not merely creating jobs for a constituency — the fear of many Virginia conservatives with just about every government provision.

Still, if McAuliffe is genuine about his approach — and I think he may very well be — simple yet elegant reforms that result in net-neutral shifting of responsibilities away from local government and towards Richmond in meeting constitutional responsibilities might very well be the way to go.

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