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This article originally appeared in the Mobile Register on February 4, 2001.

Opinion Editorial for Mobile Register
By Cathy Gassenheimer, A+ Education Partnership

Over a thousand Mobile County citizens converged on a local Board of Education meeting last week to protest imminent budget cuts to athletic and extracurricular programs. Hand-painted signs and passionate pleas begged board members to find a solution to the funding problems that plague Mobile County public schools.

Of course, Mobile County's children aren't the only ones feeling the sting of proration and funding troubles. Across Alabama, citizens are reeling as they discover the details of Alabama's latest financial crisis. Though we can't precisely predict economic downturns, we know they are certain to occur. The refusal of voters to increase local revenues for their schools, combined by the lack of state planning and fiscal discipline, created a climate ripe for a financial crisis.

On Friday, Governor Siegelman announced that the current education budget would be prorated by 6.2%. At first glance, that may not seem like much. But these cuts are occurring four months into the budget-so they will be a lot more painful. And the pain will be intensified by the fact that the cuts can't be made across the board.

Salaries and benefits for school personnel make up about 85% of most school systems' budgets and can't be touched. This means that the 6.2% cut, mandated by proration, will apply to only 15% of a school system's entire budget. The cumulative impact could mean that up to two-thirds of that 15% must be eliminated.

Even trying to pare down that 15% will be untenable for superintendents and local boards. A school system can't prorate its electric or gas bills. And it's impossible to prorate insurance payments or other fixed-price contracts.

The current situation hits at a bad time. In recent years, school systems have been forced to help the cost of state mandates, like class size reductions and teacher pay raises. Many systems have had to dip into their reserve funds to meet these requirements. It is now estimated that only twenty of the state's 128 school systems have any reserve funds at all.

What real consequences will Alabama students and teachers experience because of this crisis? Slashes in professional development, library, and technology programs. No new textbooks or instructional materials. Delays of maintenance and facility repairs. The elimination of tutoring and/or other after-school programs. And it means pink slips for a large number of administrators, support personnel, and untenured teachers at the end of this school year.

It didn't have to be this way. At the local level, the school board has been working for additional revenues for schools for years, but voters have not complied. At the state level, Alabama's governors and legislators could have practiced fiscal discipline by seeking additional sources of revenue for Alabama's already underfunded public schools. They also could have funded the empty rainy day fund established in 1988.

Because the state has not practiced the type of fiscal discipline that they require from local school systems, schools, teachers and students are going to feel 100% of the brunt of these cuts.

Of course, this crisis is compounded by the fact that Alabama ranks 47th in the nation in per pupil spending. Other states are investing in important programs that improve teaching and learning: mentors for new teachers, incentives for highly qualified teachers to locate in high need areas; and pre-school programs. Proration and the prospect of level-funding for next year's education budget will mean that our state will have even less money to invest in proven programs like these.

The din of the current crisis shouldn't keep us from listening to the voice of common sense:

o No one plans to fail; rather we simply fail to plan;
o You get what you pay for;
o You can't squeeze blood from turnips;
o A wise man builds his house on a solid foundation, not on shifting sand.

These are simple lessons our grandmothers taught us. But somehow, as a state, we have not applied any of this wisdom to education policy.

Proration has occurred 14 times in the last 51 years. What contributes to this recurring crisis?

1) Alabama's outdated, convoluted patchwork of a constitution locks in our revenue streams preventing the legislature from making the best choices.
2) The state does not have a long-range education plan, which addresses school improvement and funding.
3) State revenue for public education primarily comes from two taxes most sensitive to economic downturns-sales tax and income tax.
4) There is no money in the state's education reserve fund to cover shortfalls, in spite of a decade of prosperity in Alabama.

Mobile education leaders, including school board members and Dr. Harold Dodge, have been working night and day to squeeze $19-20 million out of the current budget year. Deep cuts will be made in funding for new textbooks, computers and library books. Athletic programs, extra-curricular activities --including band, tutoring and after-school may be eliminated. Staff development for teachers will be curtailed and the system will make personnel cuts.

This crisis has heightened the public's awareness of the real problems related to school funding, particularly local support in Mobile's case. The $64,000 question is: Will enough Mobile citizens respond by agreeing to increase local support for their schools and demand that the state do the same?

There is hope on the horizon. Mobile legislators, particularly Vivian Figures and George Callahan, have pledged to take the state steps necessary to enable increased local support. Some elected leaders, most notably House Speaker Seth Hammett and retiring Ways and Means-Education Committee Chairman Howard Hawk, have attempted to move toward fiscal responsibility. They support performance-based budgeting, longer term planning and more adequate education funding. Let's hope this new crisis will add more supporters to their ranks.

Sadly, last week, some state leaders choose to oppose new tax revenues for public schools, citing one school system's financial mismanagement. The state's financial accountability system identified Jefferson County's financial problems, and corrective action is being taken. While we all should expect and, indeed demand, financial accountability, is it fair to penalize Alabama's 128 school systems and 732,000 students for the actions of a few adults in one school system?

Once again, local and state leaders are at a crossroads. If no action is taken at both the state and local levels, school systems, including Mobile, are in for several difficult years. Unfortunately, this is the predictable course of action for Alabama.

This time, however, I choose to believe that the better side of all Alabamians will emerge; that policymakers, educators, parents, students and citizens of Alabama will not continue to settle for mediocrity. This crisis offers the opportunity for the development of a long-term solution at the state and local level.

The solution is nothing more than the common sense Alabama families use every day -- Set aside money for a rainy day, align spending with children as the highest priority, stabilize current sources of income and grow them, plan ahead and be accountable. The solution is within our reach. Will we finally seize the moment?

A+ is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works to improve the quality of education for all children in Alabama.