Montgomery Exploring City-Run Schools

I think the folks up at City Hall have been smoking something again. A city councilman wants to explore creating a city-run school system, hoping that we could save money by doing it.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011104060323

A Montgomery City Councilman is proposing that the city look into the possibility of taking over the public schools in the city limits and creating a separate city-run school system. Frustrated with the direction of Montgomery Public Schools, Councilman Glen Pruitt wants the city to study whether it can legally run the schools and, if so, if the city can do it better without raising taxes.

Really? He wants to take over running all public schools in the city limits, and he thinks they can do it without raising taxes? The city would have to replicate ALL of the funding that the County currently spends on those schools... and just how are they going to do that?

Make no mistake, if the city decides to do this, it will cost a lot of money, and they will have to increase taxes to pay for it. As for those county taxes that currently fund the schools, I wouldn't expect the County to lower those. No, they'll use that money elsewhere. The result will be a higher tax bill for all city residents, as well as the creation of a new, city-level beuracracy to run the new school system. Lots of things would have to happen legally, including the creation of a city school board, among other things.


This is a bad idea. If the councilman in question has problems with the existing school system, then he should work with the government entity currently in charge of the schools.

I could hope that this experience would enlighten some elected officials as to why we ordinary mortals are so fed up with government, but I doubt they'll learn that lesson from this. If the city council can be infuriated by the ineptitude of a government agency, they should also understand we experience a lot more of this kind of thing than they do.