School finance challenges

Everyone realizes that our local public schools are very important to our young people, and all the rest of us. We want to get youngsters off to a good start in life.

In addition to assuring personal safety for everyone, one of local government's top priorities is education. The challenge is to have good schools and excellent teachers, while keeping tax rates reasonable.

But it is difficult to provide the quality of school opportunities we want. We seek to attract the most dedicated teachers, build and maintain good school buildings close to our children's homes, and foster high student achievement. Our Hamilton County Board of Education has to try to get those desirable results from the dollars available.

Well, board members are facing a dollar "crunch." They have to decide whether three schools should be closed to save $1 million. They say that is necessary because the County Commission is setting aside for school construction $6 million that would otherwise go into schools' operating budget. Other possible budget cuts include money for hiring extra teachers, and reductions in central office staff and health care costs.

The schools under consideration have not been named. But you can be sure there are three communities who love those schools and who want their children to continue to have the convenience of attending schools in their neighborhoods.

"Keep in mind," Superintendent Jim Scales realistically said, "I don't care how inefficient a school might be on paper, these are live bodies in there, and it's pretty late in the year to do that [close schools]."

"But," he added, "we can put our finger on three schools we could reasonably close without a lot of construction."

Decisions have to be made in accord with the dollars available. And we want to avoid any upset before next fall. Surely, closing any school would cause pain, inconvenience and controversy.

We want our children to be offered the best in learning opportunities. So the ultimate decisions should be based on what's best for students - which is to assure there are excellent and dedicated teachers in uncrowded classrooms, and that those goals are accomplished within appropriate financial bounds.

It's hard to balance all those interests successfully and comfortably.

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