Improve education efficiency

How much public money our public schools need and how it should be spent are critical questions in the ongoing debate about how to improve our education system. But ample evidence proves that raising education appropriations doesn't necessarily raise classroom results. For instance, the public schools in Washington, D.C., have long produced an abysmal academic record despite being one of the costliest education systems in the nation.

A story in last Sunday's Post and Courier, documenting the per-student expenditures of many schools in the Charleston County district, showed that more money doesn't necessarily deliver better test scores here, either. For instance, Cario Middle School in Mount Pleasant, which has earned high marks for academic performance, had the lowest per-student cost in the district at $5,023 for 2006-07, the latest school year from which those statistics were available.

The average per-student figure, excluding debt service and capital projects, was $8,015. And some schools with per-student costs of up to four times that of Cario continue to struggle in academic rankings.

Yes, schools with enrollments that have high percentages of low-income families and low percentages of parental involvement in education do poorly on collective test scores. It's also understandable that such schools require higher per-student spending for the extra resources required to overcome these obstacles, and that schools with relatively small enrollments also tend to have higher per-pupil costs.

However, the Charleston district, like many others across the state and nation, is facing a budget crunch intensified by a sluggish economy. Education administrators must get more bang for the taxpayers' school-funding bucks.

In South Carolina, that challenge apparently will be further exacerbated by the General Assembly's fresh rejection of Gov. Mark Sanford's call for them to return for a special session to consider needed state budget cuts. Instead, all state agencies, including the Department of Education, apparently face an across-the-board 3 percent reduction.

Even before that cut loomed, Charleston Superintendent Nancy McGinley, at the request of the county school board, had been exploring the possibility of closing or consolidating some schools with particularly high per-pupil price tags.

Dr. McGinley knows this process is fraught with public-relations peril, recently telling our reporter: "That will be a very emotional issue because no one wants their school to be closed, even if we propose changes that could ultimately create a better educational environment."

But if the district is to make the best use of its resources, and ultimately produce the best educational product for the county, it can't let emotion veto the tough decisions needed to adjust to changing realities — both economic and educational.

Dr. McGinley has said she will seek "creative" solutions for the problem of high-cost schools, including the potential consolidation of some sites into campuses that serve students ranging from kindergarten through high school. The board and community should support her attempt to make the district's spending more efficient. That effort, if successful, could make our schools more productive.