The news that North Kansas City schools are implementing a plan to cut their budget by $ 1 million should be applauded by the public. The Kansas City School District, like many other school districts, must realize that there is not an unlimited amount of funding available.

KC schools have only a limited amount of funding available

Kansas City schools need to receive sufficient funding to ensure that students have the tools they need to learn. The problem with school budgets in general (not just the budget for Northern Kansas schools) is that the people in charge of those funds tend to forget exactly where the money is coming from. After all, the government can only collect a limited amount of taxes.

The challenge facing North Kansas City schools is how to keep costs in line, while still providing a quality education. Since the vast majority of school board spending goes to salaries, this is the budget line that could be scrutinized first for possible cuts. The school business is a tough business. Teacher salaries are always a topic of debate, yet there is demand for talented teachers and schools are struggling to address budget needs at the teacher level.

Budget targets in North KC schools can be met without cutting staff

I applaud the decision made by the board officials responsible for North Kansas City schools in deciding to see where public tax dollars are spent and making some changes to where most of the money is spent. Jobs will not be cut, but North Kansas City schools board officials will make adjustments to make better use of the human resources they already have.

The easy approach, by far, would be to pull out the ax and start swinging. I was very happy to read that any reduction in staff working in schools will be done through attrition. You can think of schools as belonging to the service industry; Raise funds to provide educational services to our youth.

When you start reducing too much or too fast, the quality of that service will suffer. When the quality of education suffers, we will all end up paying for it. The children who pass through the North Kansas City schools are our future leaders. If we start slashing North Kansas City school budgets without a detailed plan, we can end up with a generation that is not well prepared for life as adults when they finish school.

We use a portion of our tax dollars to invest in the next generation because we know those young people are worth it. Board officials need to spend those funds wisely, and that may mean making class size changes or choosing not to run some courses where there isn’t enough interest to justify continuing. North Kansas City Schools are on the right track; more school districts must follow in their footsteps.