Last evening the Madison School Board received the proposed budget for the 2005-2006 school year – whoopee. A new software system was given as the reason for the delay. A new software system does not guarantee good long-term educational and financial decisions for the district. Software and hardware are tools through which you analyze assumptions. They are tools that facilitate a process. However, by the amount of time spent in board meetings talking about software and hardware, a person could easily come away assuming the box is the process.
Our School Board members believe now that we have the budget document, they are all set. Budget document, cut list. What more could the public ask for in a budget process – I mean, we have the outputs.

The Board’s calendar for next steps includes making final decisions on a cut list on May 10th. Board members wanted to do this prior to the referendum so that the public would know what is being cut. I’m not convinced this is the best approach nor the best use of the Board’s or the public’s time.
Rather board members ought to take the time for a public presentation of the budget before any cut list is decided. The public needs to understand what is in this very complex budget, what are the priorities in the budget, how is the money being allocated to meet those priorities, what increased in the budget from the previous year and why. We need to understand these discussions and their decisions for next year and the impact of these decisions for the long-term educational and financial picture of MMSD. These public discussions have not taken place.
So, has our School Board been involved in discussions about educational policy, budgeting and long-term financial planning? No. As Ken Sykes said on Channel 27 last night, the public has had a cut list for two months – basically, what more do we need. Our School Board has not even discussed the cut list – it’s basically been accepted as a given without assessment against priorities, long-term impacts, etc.
We need to be clear about the priorities and how the money is allocated so that when we go to vote for the referendum on May 24th we know what our school distsrict needs for our kids and why they need these resources.
Has the School Board had these discussions – no. Will the School Board have a presentation of the new budget – no. Will the School Board have a presentation of the new budget compared to last year’s budget by department, major educational spending categories – no.
After receiving the budget last night, after having no previous presentations comparing last year’s budget with this year’s budget by major educational areas, Board members are supposed to submit amendments to the 05-06 cut list, not budget, by Thursday at noon.
The public needs to stop hearing about software and hardware problems. Businesses change systems all the time. The software and hardware are boxes/calculators – throughputs. What is important are the assumptions we make, the priorities we set for our children’s education. We need to be talking about what our kids needs are for their education – now and in the long-term.
Our School Board needs to do this now – for our kids, for the future of Madison’s public education.