Two school districts on opposite ends of the country showed taxpayers the same thing this week: your money, their priorities, your voice last.
In Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, the school board unanimously approved $8,000 supplement payments for teachers and $5,600 for support staff. In Portland, Oregon, officials are weighing a plan to close up to 14 schools after years of enrollment collapse and budget shortfalls. Both stories share a thread — the people paying the bills get the least say in how the money moves.
The Calcasieu Parish board voted without dissent to issue the supplements, split into two payments this month and in March, according to the American Press. Superintendent Jason VanMetre noted the figure is lower than last year's supplement but pointed out the board previously shifted $2,000 into the salary schedule. "When you figure in the $2,000 that's also in the salary schedule, this supplement would have been $10,000," VanMetre said. That's $10,000 per teacher on top of base pay — in a district where taxpayers have no seat at the table when it comes to what their kids are taught.
Board member Billy Breaux made the politics explicit, pushing to lock in a support staff salary schedule before the newly elected board takes over. "We need to do it now, because if we don't do it now we're going to hope that the next board comes in and does what we all know is the right thing to do," Breaux said. Translation: ram it through before voters can weigh in.
Out in Portland, the picture is even starker. Portland Public Schools is proposing closures and boundary changes that could touch 27% of the district's 42,000 students, according to The Oregonian. A packed house of angry parents showed up to Tuesday's board meeting — attendees pushed through doors to fill the room beyond capacity — only to find a board already split along familiar lines.
Three members, including Chair Eddie Wang, signaled support for the district's direction. Two others pushed back, with Director Stephanie Engelsman calling the proposals "mayhem." Engelsman pressed the district on transportation costs, the fate of federal funding for high-poverty students, and whether consolidated schools would simply go from under-enrolled to overcrowded. Director Virginia La Forte demanded specifics on how much money — if any — the plan would actually save.
Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong and operations chief Jon Franco promised clearer financial breakdowns by mid-November. Director Patte Sullivan dismissed the outcry by reminding the room that the status quo brings complaints every budget season too.
The district has faced multi-million dollar cuts for years due to declining enrollment and rising costs. Nobody at the table asked the obvious question: where did the money go, and who was held responsible for the mismanagement that got Portland here?
Whether it's Louisiana handing out supplements or Oregon shuttering buildings, the pattern is the same. The permanent education class spends, the system fails, and parents are left standing in a hallway wondering who answers to them.
