Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Liars, lies and school budget projections. « Fred Klonsky

Liars, lies and school budget projections. « Fred Klonsky:


Liars, lies and school budget projections.


CPS budget projections.
As you know. I’m a K-5 art teacher. Or as Kyle Olson calls us, an overpaid finger painter.
But I have also negotiated school contracts for twenty years. That’s twenty years of looking at school budgets.
What I have learned is that there are liars, lies and school budget projections.
Take any school finance man or woman out for a drink and promise confidentiality. Then say the words, “school budgets,” and they will snicker.
I have never negotiated a contract where the school board didn’t trot out their budget, bar graphs and pie charts to show how they will be in deficit five years out.
They could just as well Xerox the last bar graphs and pie charts and budget projections. They always show the