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Despite a severe economic downturn and reduced government revenues, local school districts continued spending on “perks” and non-education related spending. In Sunday’s The Denver Post, reporters uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in non-education related spending. This included purchases from Starbuck’s, various restaurants and out-of-state conferences.
During the past eight months to a year, the article showed nearly $580,000 on “discretionary food and drink” in the Jefferson County Public Schools and $487,000 in Denver Public Schools for similar purchases. Possibly the most egregious, Douglas County Public Schools saw $1.7 million “on travel, registrations and entrance fees.”
To make matters worse, administration officials in the schools actually attempted to defend the purchases. Abraham Lincoln High School principal Antonio Esquibel approved expenses for conferences at the MGM Grand and Harrah’s Hotel in Las Vegas. Even after exposing $1,200 spent at Dave and Buster’s for teachers and staff, the Esquibel says, “To me, that is reasonable. I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
If Esquibel doesn’t see anything wrong with that, he should be fired on the spot. Sure, it’s not a lot of money compared to his $8 million budget. However, that is taxpayer money. I doubt and I’m sure the parents with children in that school would probably agree, that money needs to be spent in the classroom. If the school is running a surplus, the money should be refunded. If this principal believes it is necessary to spend that amount, he should take it out of his bloated six-figure salary.
Not to be outdone, Republican-heavy Douglas County parents should be fuming over the spokeswoman’s comments down south. Looking at over $1 million spent on travel alone in the past 8 months, spokeswoman Susan Meek retorts, “We are a large business…These charges are a cost of doing business to serve our community.” The parents need to educate Meeks and explain that Douglas County Public Schools is not a business. It is a government agency that local taxpayers are forced to contribute to through state taxes, property taxes and other costs.
If she wants to be treated as a business, a closer model would be to charge parents a rate that parents are willing to pay for the quality of education provided. In that kind of market place, businesses providing services are forced to cut back because demand is down. Consumers simply have less money. In order to cut back, Meek’s role, like many public relations contracts, would likely be on the chopping block to save money. Out-of-state travel and expense accounts would be slashed. If they weren’t able to survive the downturn, they would go out of business. But as Meek knows, the money is constitutionally mandated to arrive from all taxpayers regardless of the quality of service provided.
The arrogance of the education community, as evidenced in this article, is astounding. As legislators continue to say there is nothing left to cut, I hope they find it at these school districts. Unfortunately, the fat cats in administration won’t suffer the financial pushback, our kids will.
