APS "executive" furloughs

According to the Journal, link,
APS Supt Winston Brooks
is considering executive furloughs
as a means of balancing the budget.

The "plan" is disingenuous.

The approach fails to recognize that there are two kinds of administrators;
the most dedicated and hardest working administrators, and those who spend most days wandering the building shaking hands and slapping people on the back, link.

An independent review of the administration of the APS will reveal people and positions that are not critical to educational success. They are administrators who through their incompetence in other positions, political loyalty, or their body maps, hold jobs that could and should be eliminated.

That review of course, will not be done.

The leadership of the APS steadfastly refuses to allow their business model to be evaluated. Taxpayers are left with nothing but assurances, from people like Brooks (who has a self interest in covering up administrative waste) that no administrative waste exists.

There is widespread belief that APS' administration is bloated. The belief is a major stumbling block every time APS goes to taxpayers for another mill levy or bond issue.

There is nothing Brooks would like more than to show taxpayers an independent review of his administration which shows that he has actually ended administrative waste, incompetence, and corruption. There is no reason to not commission such a review, except that such a review would not reveal a lean and efficient administration.

Quite the opposite.

It is up to stakeholders to demand an independent review.
We need to identify the deadwood and eliminate it.

We need to cut superfluous positions entirely,
not just furlough them for a week or even two.

Also worth noting, so far no one has suggested that school board members take a cut in their per diem, despite the fact that they are as responsible for this mess as anyone.




photo Mark Bralley