The bloated rhetoric about the Department of Public Instruction

by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, February 4, 2016.

Senate leaders are relying on an offensive but familiar talking point in their latest flap with the N.C. Public Instruction—which appears to be more of a publicity stunt than a serious complaint.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger claims that state education officials are diverting money earmarked to help kids learn how to read as part of his Reach to Achieve program to instead offset budget cuts and protect jobs at the department.

The screaming headline on Berger’s website quotes him saying “don’t take funds to help kids learn to read and pad bloated bureaucracy.”

Officials at DPI released a series of documents this week which contradict Berger’s claim about possible shenanigans as the money for the reading program will be released in the month or so.

But there’s a larger story here beyond the $3.8 million allocated to Reach to Achieve and the $2.5 million budget cut to DPI.

Berger’s rhetoric about the bloated education bureaucracy is almost an article of faith among arch conservative Republicans and several jumped at the chance this week to sneer again about “education bureaucrats” in Raleigh.

They may think that attacking education professionals who work hard every day to improve the state’s schools is good politics, but it is offensive and demeans the work of people who are trying to make a difference in children’s lives.

And calling the state’s education infrastructure a bloated bureaucracy is simply absurd. The entire budget of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education is roughly one half of one percent of public school funding in the state.

If you quote those numbers to some folks obsessed with the alleged education bureaucracy in Raleigh, they will often restate their case by saying that local school systems are actually where the problems is, that they are top heavy with overpaid administrators.

But figures from DPI show that central office administration in local school systems accounts for just over one percent of education funding.   It would be interesting to see the overhead charged by the private companies that Berger and allies are always claiming can do things cheaper than state government.

It’s also ironic that many of the people at DPI are there to make sure local schools spend their money the way they are supposed to and properly administer federal grants. Surely Berger wants accountability in how education funding is spent.

Others help small local school systems that can’t afford the support staff that larger systems have on hand.

Others are part of the school transformation teams that work to help turn around low performing schools. There is the oversight of the state’s residential schools for the deaf and blind and IT infrastructure to make sure every school district has the technology it needs.

There are employees with the state’s virtual public school and others who work in exceptional children services. And it goes on and on.

It’s not clear what Berger wants DPI not to do or which school system or group of kids he would rather the state not help.

DPI has already lost more than 200 positions since 2009 to state budget cuts and another 165 jobs that were supported by federal funding as part of the Race to the Top program.

None of that adds up to an out of control bureaucracy. And deep down Berger and most of his colleagues know it.

But it’s easier to try to score cheap political points with their disingenuous claims that they also use to rationalize their attacks on public education, from budget cuts to sketchy voucher schemes.

Something’s bloated here alright, but it’s not the education infrastructure. It’s the rhetoric of the state’s current political leadership.

http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2016/02/04/the-bloated-rhetoric-about-the-department-of-public-instruction/