School closures: “Too many questions, too little time.”
Note: This is a somewhat longer version of a column that will appear tomorrow in the Sacramento News and Review.
The more you peel back the layers of the Sac City school district’s brutal “right-sizing” plan, the weirder it gets.
The more you peel back the layers of the Sac City school district’s brutal “right-sizing” plan, the weirder it gets.The administration wants to shutter 11 elementary schools–one out of every five run by the district. It’s a drastic solution, suited for a drastic problem. Unfortunately, it’s not at all clear just what problem the school board and Superintendent Jonathan Raymond are trying to solve.
Is it the immediate problem, the district’s short-term budget deficit? We won’t know the size of the shortfall until the state budget becomes more clear; could be $10 million, $5 million, $8 million, who knows? We do know school closures–estimated to save only $2.5 million a year–likely won’t close the gap. Where will the rest of the money come from? What alternative cost saving measures have been considered, and then rejected, before escalating to the nuclear option of closing schools? None, so far.
Or is the district trying to solve a long-term problem of declining enrollment and structural deficit? That problem has not just suddenly materialized, requiring emergency action. And the solution to that problem ought not be rammed down the public’s throat. Yet, district