Public Speaks Out Against Process of Schools Budget

From The Chicago News Cooperative:

By REBECCA VEVEA
Published: August 13, 2011

As Chicago Public Schools officials scramble to complete the district’s 2012 budget, parents, teachers and taxpayers made one thing clear in a series of public hearings last week: they must have a voice in developing the budget and not be asked to comment only after it has been released.

Citing inaccuracies in enrollment figures and cost projections, they said the district repeatedly announced a looming budget deficit and threatened spending cuts and layoffs, only to produce a balanced budget that allowed for public involvement too late in the process.

and:

“To say ‘I’m in debt, but I have four grand in savings,’ then I guess I’m not in debt,” Mr. Kaslow said. “You kind of begin to wonder, Is it a rainy-day fund or a bucket of change?”

Wendy Katten, a member of the parents’ group Raise Your Hand, said the use of reserves “raises questions about the way we talk about the deficit.”

“It leads to some lack of credibility,” she added.

Read more here.