Roy Exum
When the Hamilton County Commissioners and officials of the Hamilton County Department of Education met for 3 ½ hours on Tuesday, they studied a proposed budget of roughly $385 million – this $24.2 million over an anticipated $361 million in revenues.
Now let’s pretend it is a Tuesday night at your own kitchen table and your favorite son – after misbehaving in a somewhat stunning way since Christmas -- is presenting a plea to the family for a new car. He’ll promise anything to get up the cash. He’ll even tell you he can provide “results,” which incidentally, just like the Department of Education, he has promised every year. Oh yes, he is terribly sorry about the last three car wrecks (superintendents) that have cost the family (taxpayers) over $750,000 in buyouts alone.
Would you do it? Would you ‘up his ride’ to the fancy sports car he’s got thumb-tacked to his wall? His momma – your wife – is hissing “Absolutely not,” pointing to horrible facts (60 percent of 3rd graders not reading at grade level, 65 percent of even our honors graduates taking remedial classes at Chattanooga State, and a coming report on bullying in all of our schools – not just at Ooltewah – that will curl your hair.)
You love your son … and the battered six-cylinder Chevy pickup truck he’s been driving since you fetched it from the farm is getting him quite well from point A to Point B. But the truck doesn’t have quite the flash to attract the Lolitas and you want him to have all the best things in life. After all, you had to work your way to where the family now finds itself. So it all boils down to trust, doesn’t it?
If it was me looking at the budget I’d try to tell “the boy” that I love him – he’s the only son we have -- and that I believe in him, but that I’ve heard promises for too long, but can see visible proof of plummeting results in each of the last three years. It is there, plain to see. Our school system is broken. We all know it.
Throwing money at a bonfire won’t put it out. We’ve got to have the best experts in leadership and planning to plot a route out of a deep hole. The Chattanooga 2.0 movement we know is phenomenal. The demand for technical jobs is exciting and the public’s heightened interest in our public system must not be allowed to dim.
So despite my heart, I can’t rightfully dive into the family’s cash box because it is clearly evident that now is not the time to raise property taxes for what realistically is no more than a “pig-in-a-poke.” Not one of the nine Hamilton County Commissioners can predict what the school board will do after they get the money. As sad as that it is, it is also the bitter truth.
Oh, we talk a grand game, a wonderful scheme of change and openness and honesty, but I’m more apt to believe Putin really admires Obama than to trust the school board right now. There are mounds of evidence that prove both past and present dysfunction but – to cut to the chase -- solely focus on the worst moment last month.
When the school board selected Kirk Kelly as the interim superintendent after he was a late yet unanimous finalist, it brought screams from a disgusted public. The newspaper and the websites (this included) howled and the talk shows were avid in their disgust. Someone from within the system means ‘status quo’ is very alive and swimmingly well.
Since the highly-suspicious coup, as it were, with three “old school” former teachers and the two blacks on the school board providing a most disturbing majority vote, it is immediately obvious that exact same scenario could make Kelly the permanent superintendent. Would you throw an extra $24 million coming from a dreadful tax increase into such an unknown quagmire?
In six-to-eight months, who is going to be our permanent superintendent? In both Nashville and Knoxville they are entertaining world-class candidates but as our county commissioners study the budget, not one knows the direction the school district is going or, worse, where it will wind up. And, brother, I ain’t ever heard of giving a tax increase back to the public when the board’s behavior shows itself to be sorry once again?
I think I can speak for Chattanooga business and the public when I declare not a one will back our school system in the way we urgently need until they have solid reassures that the “Good Ole Boy” regime that has brought us to the lowest depths is ancient history. The County Commission would be as derelict as the school board has proven itself to be if it considers giving our HCDE what it desperately needs right now.
Yes, our children need much more. Yes, we need School Resource Officers in all 79 Hamilton County schools immediately. Does “12 shot in seven days” not terrify every principal and teacher in the system? Is it going to take a Sandy Hook event to open our eyes about school security, discipline, and bullying? That’s horrible to say but the safety of our schools at a time our ‘at risk’ school are not very safe at all is something we must address as strongly as possible.
My solution – in a county that spends more to educate a child than any other in the state – would be to trim the budget to the bone. Our teachers must get a ‘substantial’ raise … not based on percentage but a lump sum paid out through the year. “A 2 percent raise to somebody making $35,000 a year is almost an insult …”
We must increase school supplies, copy paper, pencils … the idiotic things that cause teachers to moan … right now but have the courage to say now is not the time for pilot programs, experimental seating and the other loony stuff sprinkled through the budget. Last year we returned millions in federal monies for our at-risk schools. That is inexcusable.
It is also beside the point. Our schools need money, big money, but two urgent things must occur before we grant their wish. The school board must know that the time has come that its members are held accountable by the commissioner and the people of each district. And the County Commission must know that a new superintendent holds the key to our pass-or-fail.
Finally, when a genius takes over, and our scores rise and our “poor schools” respond, never forget you stalled the money but then will be the time to give it, and more. Don’t dare say, “They’ve got it right … they don’t need more.” That's when we will really need it and the minute that does not happen, we’ll return to dead-rock bottom.
royexum@aol.com