Interesting Ways to Save Money While Running a School

I've written about the triangle of tension in charter schools here, but we all know that it's not just charter schools that have budget concerns. A recent commentary in Education Week (September 17, 2008) noted some interesting ideas that are worth considering as we try to keep the triangle from pulling apart.

One overarching point is that schools should stop looking for a lot of outside help, especially from government. Most government entities are deep in debt. That is especially true with the current economic crisis.

But how about these options?

• Create a K-11 option - this would save the public money and allow students and families to get out of college sooner. It would also reduce the size of buildings and other administrative operation. Another spin on this would be to develop dual-enrollment options with local colleges instead of adding AP courses. The student would get college credit while in high school. This is primarily a savings if the dual-enrollment program is associated with a public post-secondary institution. The Classical Academy will open such a program next year and hope to fill it with a large number of students.
• Stop changing curriculum just to change curriculum. I'd add that schools ought to stop revising and changing textbooks just because it is the new thing. The fact is that there is little evidence that curriculum changes assist greatly in educating kids. The consistent factors are good teachers and supportive parents. So, let's concentrate on those areas.
• Stop buying technology just because. Technological improvements have not made major impact on test scores or even breadth of education. The use of technology is not bad, but it must be strategic. It must be based on some sort of cost/benefit approach, not some IT guideline to replace or improve technology periodically just because there is some new technological standard. Businesses don't do that, why should schools?
• Reexamine pension systems. Public employees have one of the best, if not the best, retirement systems around. They are costing a fortune. I'd add that if teachers want additional pay, one way to find it is to reduce pension costs. Make teacher retirement plans similar to their for-profit peers and use the money saved to fund higher salaries. It's not impossible to think that the savings for schools and districts could fund 5 to 10% increases in salaries.

There are other suggestions and all are good, but these four could really change the way we budget and reduce some tension from our triangle.

Poor Forecasting Kills Merit Pay--but there's a solution

How would you like to work hard, improve your teaching performance, deserve a bonus, then find out your efforts only earned you a lottery ticket?

That's literally what happened in Florida when too many teachers qualified for a bonus worth more than $2,000. Remarkably, rather than redistributing the total pool so that every deserving teacher received a smaller bonus, leaders in Florida conducted a lottery that left 600 teachers out in the cold.

How is this possible? Fortunately, charter schools can learn from the mistakes of others. It makes no sense to develop an alternative compensation system unless you are willing to do the work to forecast properly and budget accordingly. A compensation system that promises specific leveled bonuses must include tactics to secure funds sufficient to pay for those bonuses.

Fortunately, it is possible to limit categories of bonuses so that the system is sustainable. Merit pay and other forms of compensation demand scrupulous planning. They are not a panacea or a simple fix to teacher performance. They are an effective way to clarify and motivate desired performance. Use them intelligently.

Quotas kill educational merit pay--but there's a solution

Google "merit pay" education problems and you'll find over 463,000 articles, studies and papers detailing chronic failings with the implementation of merit pay.

One of the top-mentioned problems with merit pay is:

Quotas. Too many systems provided for a limited number of "slots" in a given merit pay system. Assuming a normal distribution of teacher performance is a bad mistake. Excellent schools hold more then their fare share of excellent teachers. This gives them an advantage in terms of overall teacher quality, but puts near-excellent teachers at a comparative disadvantage.

CHARTER SCHOOLS have the option to incorporate forecasting and compensation models that encourage more teachers to achieve excellence. Rather than grading and paying teachers on a curve, schools should judge them against clear and attainable standards instead. As a charter school, it is better to deal with the problem of paying a staff full of star educators than to suffer the constant churn when mediocre teachers disillusion parents and depart the movement.