EdVANTAGE Blog

Today’s Buffalo News includes a story the state leaders meeting on deficit reduction which was conducted yesterday by conference call.

It includes this passage:

The governor also maintains that nearly three-quarters of school budgets are administrative, and that many districts have money in reserves to cover funding cuts from Albany.

Robert Lowry, deputy director of a state association for school superintendents, noted that the most recent U. S. Census data from 2006 found administrative costs for schools amount to about 5.5 percent of a district’s budget.

Lowry said Paterson’s assertion that “administration” and “administrative” costs account for most of school district budgets is “just not true.”

We endured similar claims by the Governor a year ago.  I first noticed this new one in an online story and called the reporter to try to set the record straight.  I said there was no way administrative expenses  could be calculated to comprise so high a share of total school spending.

I also suggested thinking about a typical elementary school — 20 to 30 teachers, maybe some specialists, a nurse, a librarian, custodians, food service workers and one administrator — the principal.

I followed-up with an email message explaining the quirks in computing administrative spending (depending on how districts or  compiling agencies assign positions and costs) but said Census Bureau data indicates that 5.5 percent of 2006-07 spending in New York State went for administration, including both building-level and central office costs.

I added that the State Education Department reported central administration spending to be 2 percent of total expenditures in 2006-07.  SED does not publish data on building-level administration. SED calculated instructional expenses to be 75.5% of total expenses.

In testimony at an Assembly Ways and Means Committee hearing, I said, “We will not minimize the hardship you face in balancing the state’s finances. Please don’t minimize the challenges confronting school leaders.”

That is my concern with outlandish assertions of administrative spending.  It invites the conclusion that schools can manage cuts without hurting instruction.

In some structures, all employee benefits have been deemed an “administrative” expense.  Counting them as such for schools still wouldn’t get close to the 75 percent figure.  But in any event, those benefits for teachers are part of the cost of delivering instruction.  A district cannot reduce pension costs for teachers on its own, for example, except by eliminating teachers’ jobs.

As to the outcome of that leaders’ meeting, the Buffalo News said “The Legislature’s top Democrat and Republican on Thursday squared off in a new format — a telephone conference call — that featured name calling and motive questioning amid stalled efforts to erase the state’s $3.2 billion deficit.”