How 'bout an audit of the ACBOE- and every other county BOE in the CSRA- by folks from KMGP out of NYC before our board members approve budget cuts?
Regarding proposed budget cuts in the Aiken County school system: The last thing that needs to be cut for a lack of funds is anything that is directly part of student education.
Before the first teacher is let go or a class size is increased, or the impact on the actual instruction of a student is felt, the gross bureaucracy at the area offices and county headquarters that consumes so many millions of education dollars -- yet instructs not one child -- needs to be cut by 75 percent.
All these "assistant superintendents" at the many locations around the county, and their requisite support staffs, are for the most part a huge waste of precious funds, and are apparently accountable to no one. They ostensibly do little or nothing as it relates directly to educating the students. If a program or department doesn't have a direct impact on the actual education of our children, then it needs to be eliminated.
Before anything else, the superintendent should be required to closely examine the size and cost of the administrative demands on the budget and then act with the interest of education, not self-preservation.
Damon I. Wright Jr., North Augusta, S.C.
Comments
How 'bout an audit of the ACBOE- and every other county BOE in the CSRA- by folks from KMGP out of NYC before our board members approve budget cuts?
Why pay for an outside audit? If the current staff cannot evaluate the system, they are obviously incompetitent and need to be let go. Mandate reports, note those that file them timely and completely, note those that don't. BOOM, you just found your waste.
Mr. Wright is correct. His statements that "...the gross bureaucracy at the area offices and county headquarters that consumes so many millions of education dollars -- yet instructs not one child -- needs to be cut..." and that "...assistant superintendents" at the many locations around the county, and their requisite support staffs, are for the most part a huge waste of precious funds..." cannot be questioned. Further, I would add one other abuse that should be eliminated as well, namely, the practice of rehiring retired educators. I am fairly certain that these individuals (teachers and administrators) do no reenter the system at the bottom of the pay scale; nor does their so-called "expertise" justify their positions. These folk, the double-dippers, are just not as valuable to the system as we would be led to believe. Some states wisely outlaw the rehiring of retirees; they recognize the danger of supporting a practice that often "creates" jobs (of little merit) for in-house favorites or for politically positioned former employees. The welfare and education of students should be the priority here, not the maintenance of old-timers. GGpap
Let's get rid of all of the bureaucracy. Lunch? What lunch? I don't know where your bus is. OK, who forgot to order the books? It's only your leg, go rub some dirt on it. Where is a cop when you need one?
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