Editorial: Education budget was too inflated for today's reality

By: Editorial | Opelika Auburn News
Published: July 16, 2009

Brace yourselves, but Alabama schools should expect further cuts to their budgets next year.

Gov. Bob Riley and a pair of legislators, Sen. Hank Sanders (D-Selma) and Rep. Richard Lindsey (D-Centre), agreed that further cuts — probably less than the current 9 percent proration — in the current $6.2 billion education budget are expected when the new budget begins Oct. 1.

Education holds the key to Alabama’s future for growth and prosperity, so giving our children and their educators fewer resources to work with to achieve their academic potential lands somewhere between disappointing and downright outrageous.

We expect more out of our children and more out of the ones educating them, yet we take away their tools and expect them to make the most of what they have? Makes little sense, but it’s a sign of the times, and we must deal with it for the time being. School supplies don’t come cheap. Neither do building projects or hiring more high-quality educators in a competitive market where other states are hoping to lure the same ones.

Where do we point the finger of blame? Do we point it toward the governor’s mansion since Riley is the loudest messenger of the bad news? Do we point it at the state Legislature for having to adopt such cuts to our already dwindling education budget?

Truth be known, the mistake may have been made two to three years ago when inflated education budgets were approved by the Legislature. They have since been modified, sliced, trimmed, pro-rated.

Maybe we should pin the blame on wishful thinking. Legislators adopted an education budget in years past before tax collection money – funds that help pay for education in this state – were ever collected. To sum: legislators put their faith in money that didn’t yet exist.

Then the economy turned.

Recently, sales and income taxes have dropped considerably and money appropriated for education didn’t meet expectations.

Maybe the Legislature should not bank future expenditures with future hopeful collections. And now our children and the ones educating them must pay the price.

So what do we do? Grin, bear it and hope legislators who proposed over-inflated education budgets knowing they look good on paper and in the eye of the voting public, understand that proration is a bi-product of false promises and a challenged economic climate.