A Penny Saved

Whew! I just finished my first research conference at AEI--an accumulation of six months of exhausting planning, researching, editing, & worrying.  And, CSPAN joined us all day for live coverage of "A Penny Saved: How Schools and Districts Can Tighten Their Belts While Serving Students Better." 

Given our education system's enormous financial dependability--we count on $600 billion in local, state & federal funding--and our economy's unpromising instability--half of the states are anticipating a cumulative shortfall of $144.8 billion for FY 2010--this is a timely topic. We must consider smart, sustainable ways to cut costs while also freeing up financial resources that can then drive promising reforms. My boss, Rick Hess, and Eric Osberg of the Fordham Institute did a wonderful job of bringing together key scholars, researchers, consultants, and district leaders to offer hopeful solutions to our education funding shortfall.  Be on the lookout for the research compiled in an edited volume, to be published by Harvard Ed Press this coming fall!

A few highlights: 

"Notice I don't have a PowerPoint presentation. We cut PowerPoints." --Jose Torres, Superintendent School District U-46

"The pressure for success from the outside world, state, federal, the community, has to become greater than the pressure for maintaing the status quo. My Superintendent friends always told me, 'Nate you gotta remember, no superintendent ever got fired cause the kids can't read.' You get fired because you shifted dollars around, you took away money from some favorite program that wasn't working."--Nathan Levenson, former superintendent of Arlington, MA

"The public is uninformed about school budgets. They often underestimate perpupil spnding in their dist by $5,00." --Martin West, Harvard University. 

"We must ask what the purpose of public education is. We don't all agree on that." --Lily Eskelsen, vice president of the  National Education Association