Mar 11 2008
CMS Wants $28 Million More from County Taxpayers
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools needs $28.4 million more from the county to cover enrollment growth and rising costs in 2008-09, district leaders say.Deputy Superintendent Maurice Green will present a $1.2 billion budget plan to the school board later tonight, after a long public hearing and debate on the district’s controversial bullying policy. The meeting, which is televised live on CMS-TV Cable 3, began at 6 p.m.
With recession looming, Green and Superintendent Peter Gorman say they won’t seek extra money for new programs this year.
“We understand the overarching challenge that the economy brings to folks,” Gorman said in an interview before the school board meeting. “This is not a budget that has huge numbers of new initiatives.”
The spending plan includes a request for $369.8 million from county commissioners, an 8 percent increase over the current year. Enrollment is expected to grow by less than 3 percent, while the total budget (including state and federal money) grows by 4 percent.
Whoa! Hold everything! An 8 percent increase over last year? Is this not the same school district that last year was drastically off their projected enrollment and ended up receiving about $21 million more than they needed? Now they are claiming they need over $28 million more for the 2008-09 school year? They way I see it, they are saying they need to spend $49 million more next year over this year since they already have all that extra money. Where is it all going? The kids at CMS certainly aren’t learning anything. The district has not improved since Gorman took over. In some respects it’s gotten worse.
Something isn’t right. I don’t see how the budget for just the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system can be one-seventh of the budget for the entire State of South Carolina.
