It?s not Christmas, but we feel like singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel?s “Messiah.” A miracle happened Tuesday when Baltimore City schools chief Andres Alonso announced plans to cut 300 jobs at the system?s headquarters and give principals more control of their schools and budgets.
Local accountability is not a new idea, but it is new to Baltimore, where top-heavy bureaucracy has stayed the same size despite a shrinking student population and perpetually poor student achievement.
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Right now principals control about $90 of the $13,000 the school system spends on each student. In other words, they represent administrators, not their students.
They do not even control custodial workers, who report to North Avenue headquarters. That is the style of inefficient governance endemic to Cuba, the birthplace Alonso left as a youth ? and hardly an example of a fertile academic community or flourishing civil society.
Under Alonso?s proposal, principals would control about 40 percent of per-pupil money ? and win more say over teaching, textbooks and other decisions. He is also giving those slated to be cut the option of teaching or being principals ? with a pay cut. This means students will have more resources, and parents a clear line of accountability for school policy. The plan also shows Alonso was not blowing smoke when he said, “I was not brought here to make decisions about what is good for adults,” at the beginning of his tenure last year.
No change will bring about immediate improvement in learning or test scores. But these reforms will allow principals and teachers to fine-tune their academic plans to fit the needs of their students ? not the administration. It will also allow individual schools, much like charter schools, to serve as incubators for innovative ideas and pass the benefits on to the entire system. Conversely, programs not meeting goals can be shuttered quickly. And it will save $110 million a year that can offset a $50 million deficit and pay for actual learning.
We admire the perseverance of Alonso, who has endured myriad attacks from the teachers union over the smallest attempts to improve learning in the past year, including an uproar over shifting 45 minutes of individual planning time to collaborative meetings with other teachers and principals.
Parents, students and every resident of Baltimore City and the region should thank Alonso for forging the path to making Baltimore a thriving city and a source for employees instead of a drain on Marylanders? taxes.
