Tumultuous meetings. School board members’ homes being picketed. Parents threatening not to send their children to a new school. That was the atmosphere in which parents, teachers and administrators dealt with the school system’s need to reduce its operating budget to slash the deficit. Interestingly, though, whenever the issue of reducing the budget arose, opponents were hard-pressed to present alternative solutions.
Although the school board can be brought to task for employing a high-priced management consulting firm, the decision to close some schools was painful but represented sound fiscal management. The harsh realities faced by St. Louis and other urban school districts make for tough decisions that call for compromise and understanding, not virulent opposition.Greg GibsonOverland