Bad budget guess means cutbacks

Columbus Board of Education members find themselves in an awkward position of the sort that develops when politicians make promises beyond their ability to control: They’re having to tell voters, who overwhelmingly supported a tax levy in 2016 based in part on a promise to hire 325 needed employees, that they have to cut at least 163 positions, plus tens of millions more in cuts, for next school year.

Board members say that won’t be breaking their levy promise, because they still intend to hire the promised positions, including pre-kindergarten teachers, nurses and social workers. The cuts, they say, will come elsewhere. Nevertheless, voters who raised their own taxes, expecting it to increase staffing, are understandably unhappy to hear that they’re back in belt-tightening mode.

The shortfall isn’t entirely the school board’s fault. Ohio’s schoolfunding “formula” isn’t exactly that for many districts. Those (including Columbus) that should, according to the formula, get the most state aid are subject to a cap, because the Department of Education couldn’t afford what the formula actually calls for.

Each year the state raises the cap a bit, giving those districts an increase. But the raise is different each year. When Columbus City Schools was promoting its levy in 2016 and making spending plans for 2017-18, it projected a 7.5 percent increase — same as the year before. But it got only 4 percent, and now is looking at a future of growing budget deficits if it doesn’t cut expenses now.

In the future, the board should estimate more conservatively.

For now, the focus should be on making the cuts that make the most sense, and doing so as transparently as possible.

Transparency is a concern with this board; it continues to keep secret its short list of prospects to be the next superintendent, despite having promised to keep the hiring process open.

At a regular schoolboard meeting on Tuesday, President Gary Baker wouldn’t answer questions from a Dispatch reporter, and district public-relations employees kept TV cameras away from Baker and Interim Superintendent John Stanford.

Answering simple questions, especially at a tumultuous moment such as the present, shouldn’t be optional.

We hope the board doesn’t persist on this path as it considers which positions to cut and where else to trim the tens of millions of additional dollars that will be necessary.

Too often, school boards in budget-cut mode compile detailed lists of cuts and present them to the public as a done deal. They might hold special meetings to allow “input,” but the list rarely changes.

The Columbus board would serve its district far better if it would take some public input before it decides what to cut and what to keep. It might be that keeping the levy promise, and all the additional positions that entails, isn’t best for the district if it means severe cuts among classroom teachers.

Above all, the board should err on the side of cutting nonclassroom administrative positions rather than teachers, nurses, counselors and aides.

Ultimately, the board has to make the tough decision. But if it listens to taxpayers and families beforehand, it’ll be a better one.