ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 25, 1996 TAG: 9611250061
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: THOMAS A. LEGGETTE
AN INFORMED populace, free to debate important public issues, is essential to the functioning of our representative form of government. The ultimate power in our form of government rests with the people. Our government should be "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
For our democratic society to succeed, the citizens must have access to sufficient information so that they can make informed decisions. Perhaps the need for information may well be strongest at the local level. It is here that decisions are made that most directly affect citizens and their families.
Many parents and other citizens feel that education is the key to the future, not only for every one of our children but for society itself. Perhaps this is why education remains on the cutting edge of issues facing our society. Perhaps this is why citizens want to know how their education dollars are being spent.
Although one would think that with the advent of computers it would be much easier for the public to get information, this is not necessarily so. The catch is that while a citizen is able, under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, to get official, nonexempt public records maintained on a computer, a public body is apparently not required to create or prepare a particular record if it does not already exist. Illustratively, since our Roanoke County computer cannot provide information as to how much money will reach your child's school this year for teaching and learning, the system need not provide that information.
Nor is this situation unusual. The National School Board Association has noted, "Unfortunately, at the local district or school level, officials themselves are often not entirely sure just how their education dollars are being spent. For example, they typically do not break out costs for individual schools. In other words, how much money actually gets to the classroom? And where does the rest of the money go?"
In this day and age of electronically stored data, the more relevant reports that a computer software program generates, the more likely you as a citizen can obtain a report that would provide information on issues important to you.
School divisions and state departments or boards of education appear to have a unique opportunity. On Oct. 10, 1996, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Coopers and Lybrand, L.L.P., a well-known, international accounting firm, announced a new software program designed for school divisions to provide detailed information on how education dollars are being spent.
The new software program promises to allow a school district to track spending and, as a result, try to better allocate existing resources to improve educational quality. How does it work? It reformats financial accounting data into easily understood management reports. The software package promises to make it easy for the school system to communicate answers to simple questions like, "How much will reach each school this year for teaching and learning?"
All expenditures from a school district's general ledger supposedly can be analyzed from three different perspectives. One perspective is by function which categorizes each district expenditure into one of five broad categories: instruction, instructional support, operations, other commitments, and leadership. Another perspective categorizes district expenditures by specific educational program. The third perspective categorizes costs by each school location and by grade level.
Thus, expenditures for each school can be analyzed to determine whether certain schools provide services more effectively than others. After such effective services are identified, other schools can examine those programs and consider implementing them.
In all, its designers claim, when the software program is fully implemented, 270 reports can be generated on how schools spend money. And it permits custom designing of additional reports.
It offers the further advantage of standardizing categories of expenditures and setting forth consistent ways to assign costs. It will make it possible to compare "apples to apples." The more school divisions and states that adopt the software program, the more opportunities there may be to make comparisons and to determine what is most efficient and effective.
Two states, South Carolina and Rhode Island, already have adopted the software program for statewide use. The software program has been tested in more than 50 school districts. A license for it and its supporting operating and training documentation is available for $2,500 per school district. An annual software management package is available for approximately $450. Of course, moneys would have to be spent in teaching staff how to implement and use the program.
Currently in Roanoke County, for example, the kind of detailed information that this new software program promises to provide is not available from the county's computer. We, for instance, cannot get information on costs at each school. The new software program would provide information such as how many education dollars reach your child's school for teaching and learning.
Will other software programs designed for schools be coming out? I certainly would think so. The advantage of this program appears to be that it has broad support, offers standardized categories of expenditures, and makes available numerous reports so that citizens are more likely to have access to the kinds of information they want to know about how their education dollars are being spent.
In providing more detailed information and letting the public know in a clear, easily understood fashion where the education dollars are being spent, schools can also make it clear to their community what resources they need. Today's schools have taken on many worthwhile activities - such as substance-abuse counseling and free breakfasts - that fall wholly outside the schools' core academic mission. Being able to break out the price of these other activities will help communities understand just what it is that public schools do for the community.
This type of software program offers the kind of information and accountability that many community members want and need. It promises to provide school divisions with the ability to make choices to help improve education. It provides user-friendly information and opens the door for students, parents, teachers, school board members and taxpayers in general to understand fully where their educational dollars are being spent.
No one wants to pour money into a school district not knowing whether or not it might have layers of bureaucracy. Having sound and easily understandable financial information that shows that, to the maximum extent possible, new moneys go directly to schools for teaching and learning or for needed capital improvements, with as little in overhead as possible, may well help convince the public to invest in public education.
Thomas A. Leggette is Windsor Hills member and chairman of the Roanoke County School Board.
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