Education Quagmire

The Seattle School District is staring into yet another gaping budget hole:

A Seattle School District review shows that its school-renovation programs are running deficits that could mean some projects will be delayed, trimmed or eliminated.

The Building Excellence I (BEX I) program, which voters approved in 1995, is running an $11.2 million deficit because of $23.6 million in unforeseen expenses, officials say. Four years ago, staff had forecast a "pessimistic" scenario of a $2 million surplus

Maybe they should name the next tax levy the "Financial Excellence I program".

The District's response to the financial crisis is to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on endless legal appeals to protect an obviously unconstitutional racial preferences scheme that has been rejected by just about everybody in the community -- from the Urban League and the NAACP to parents from affluent neighborhoods.

Magnolia blogger P. Scott Cummins, whose young children could be harmed by the School District's destructive and divisive racial politics, has more to say, here. Scott is an erstwhile school levy volunteer who last February called me a "troglodyte" for being the only man in town bold enough to raise questions about the levy in the media. Scott now e-mails to concede that I might have had a point after all.

Welcome to the good fight to give public schools back to the public, Scott.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 09, 2004 11:20 AM | Email This