Education is not like private-sector business

Our school board recently met to discuss the 2015-16 budget. They are required to set levy rates and establish how and how much the district will spend in different areas. We always take time to review how Iowa finances our students' learning and our local district. There are several important principles to keep in mind:

' The biggest thing that drives the budget is the number of students in the district (and our enrollment has declined significantly over the last 10 years);

' Schools are financed through a combination of local property tax dollars, local income surtax dollars, and state support;

' Iowa law has established that districts can only spend a specific limit on students each year although they can carry-over any 'leftover” from year to year (i.e., we don't have a 'use it or lose it” mentality).

The law is very specific in that the school board must establish the following year's levy and budget by April 15. It is also specific in that the legislature is required to set funding for schools about 18 months before we start receiving it. I am confident our school board will meet the April 15th deadline. I am concerned (and a bit embarrassed) that our elected officials have ignored the law and now are more than a full year after when they should have set the funding amounts.

The legislators are currently debating whether we should receive any additional dollars per students, 1.25 percent more, 4 percent more or somewhere in between.

As I've thought about the state's support and the debate, I have considered how I might justify why education should receive additional funding each year to someone in the private sector. A business owner may ask, 'I don't automatically get 4% more in revenue each year without making changes or working harder - why should education?” My response would include that one of the main differences between a private sector business and K-12 education is that they have more control over their business. Several examples:

' In the private sector, if there is a product line that isn't making money, they can drop it. In education, we cannot 'drop” any kids. Special education is one of the most costly services a school provides but we cannot say, 'never mind, we aren't going to provide special education anymore.” The data is clear that high school vocational classes are very expensive to offer - yet these are the courses many students need to be best prepared for life after high school.

' A business owner can work to get more business; in K-12, we cannot market our schools to people outside the district. We serve the students in our district regardless of their socio-economic status, their ability to learn, or any other characteristics.

' A business owner could decide to reduce (or increase) the area served to manage transportation costs or even charge a fuel surcharge; K-12 education cannot. It takes just as many miles to cover the district in busses to pick up fewer students and K-12 can't tell parents they need to start bringing their kids to the buildings because transportation costs too much. (We cover 235 square miles two times a day to pickup and deliver our students.)

' Many business owners do not deal with unions or arbitrators; they can say there is a wage freeze, hire less expensive labor or cut their workforce. K-12 does not have as many options. We are a very 'people” based organization that cannot outsource to robots or spread the work among fewer and fewer people. About 80% of our costs are connected to paying people. The research is clear - the most effective thing we can do to support student learning is to have the best teachers in the classrooms; so we have to remain competitive in what we pay teachers or we will lose them to Illinois, Minnesota or other states that pay more.

' Most businesses have good years where they can try to build up inventory, replace equipment or technology, pay down debt, or use the extra revenues to help them during the tough years. In my experience in education, I can't recall a 'great” year let alone very many 'good” years where we had extra revenues that we could then use during the tough years! In fact, I would argue that most years would qualify as 'tough” years with a few of the years being 'OK”. In contrast, Iowa's economy has had several 'good” years in a row including this year with anticipated growth around 5 percent.

' Our community and patrons have high expectations for schools in how we maintain our facilities including how we keep our sidewalks shoveled, grass mowed, and areas cleaned that are higher than for some businesses. We have high expectations for ourselves as how we want the community to be proud of our facilities, our staff and the opportunities we provide our students; these all come at a cost.

The bottom line? Education isn't the same as the private sector and while we work to control costs, there are some costs we cannot control. The representatives, senators and governor need to demonstrate their commitment to education by adequately funding our students' learning.

' Mary Jo Hainstock is superintendent of the Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District. Comments: maryjo.hainstock@vscsd.org