Aside from providing good and efficient police, fire and other similar protections for the safety and security of our people, there obviously is no more challenging public responsibility than providing good schools for our children.
We are reminded of that in Hamilton County as our county school system is proposing a budget of $383 million for the next fiscal year -- an increase of about $15 million more than the current year.
About $12 million of the increases are described by the system's director of accounting and budgeting as "unavoidable." They include $5 million in employee salary increases, $4 million to cover health insurance cost increases, $1.7 million for charter schools, $462,500 toward a new science, technology, engineering and math school, and $420,000 more in transportation costs.
Looking for savings, school budget officials suggested $1.5 million in textbooks and $1 million in reduced salary increases next year.
Christie Jordan, the director of accounting and budgeting, said that "when you have a budget that's 83 percent people, you don't have a lot of other places to go [for savings]."
Supt. Rick Smith appropriately said that, wherever savings are found, "Our goal is always to protect the classroom."
Our children certainly are our No. 1 priority, and a good education is vital to their development. So school funding necessarily has a very high priority in our county school system.
We appreciate and commend our school officials' difficult financial and educational efforts.