Expecting the worst

As headlines from around the state continue to remind us, Texas’ public school budgets are in for more shrinkage, even as enrollments will continue to expand. Superintendents around the state are scrambling to identify potential budget cuts – including educators’ jobs – in anticipation of major reductions in state revenue next year.

So, I was a little surprised last week to notice a news item that the Dallas ISD was considering an expansion of its prekindergarten classes into a fullday program. How, I wondered, was the district going to pay for it?

Well, as it turns out, several Dallas school board members were wondering the same thing and, during a meeting late last week, told Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who had made the recommendation, that he was getting ahead of himself.

It didn’t make much sense, they said, to expand a program that may have to be cut back in only a few more months, if the Legislature, as anticipated, chops away at the education budget.

Good idea, bad timing.

http://dallasisdblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/11/dallasisdsuperintendenthino.html