The Columbus Dispatch article by Cole Behrens from November 13 shows us that the Columbus City Schools (CCS) continues to play politics with the future of our children. The Superintendent knows she must cut about 50 million dollars from the budget.

She was in the district when her predecessor hired hundreds of additional administrators to the Central Office. She knows that the Central Office is overstaffed. The Board of Education (elected by Franklin County Democrats) knows this too; they aren’t stupid. So, what’s the first thing they choose to do to solve this budget challenge?

Play politics.

Instead of cutting the overstaffed Central Office, the Superintendent and the politically-motivated Board of Education will take the easiest route to solve the problem: lay off a wide range of employees at every level.

Some Central Office administrative roles will be eliminated, but also plenty of janitors, secretaries, and teachers. Everyone will be angry, but it will be spread across all levels fairly. Fair to the employees perhaps, but unfair to the students.

Both the Superintendent and the Board of Education have forgotten that they exist to serve the students, not themselves. Yes, the hundreds of new Central Office administrators hired during Covid are now friends with each other. They know each other and their families. They consider their own jobs vital to CCS. That makes it more difficult for the Superintendent to eliminate their jobs. But again, their responsibility is to the students and not themselves.

Go nuclear. Eliminate half of the Central Office administrators.

Avoid across-the-board layoffs that are easy to defend politically. Do the right thing. Fire half of the Central Office administrators and their support staff. Force everyone who remains in the Central Office to work harder to fill the gaps. Show empathy and leadership for the students by making the difficult decisions first. Rip the band-aid off quickly, not slowly. Be the leadership that this city needs.

Making the difficult decisions requires leadership.

Yes, some members of the Board of Education are looking forward to the next step of their political career (City Council…or maybe the next Mayor like Andrew Ginther). Who cares. Put the students first. Make the difficult decisions now and protect the future of the Columbus City Schools.

It could have been avoided.

The budget shortfall might have been less of an emergency if they had developed and followed a school facilities plan, selling the dozens of unused properties and consolidating more schools. But planning takes effort and hard work; neither of which the Board of Education or Superintendent are willing to do. Then again, failure to plan is just planning to fail.

The budget shortfall might have been less of an emergency if the Superintendent and Board of Education had been in active communication with the Columbus City Council, fighting against the over 100 million dollars of yearly property tax cuts (abatements) for wealthy real estate investors. But, the Golden Rule exists: Democrats never question other Democrats. If they cared about the future of our students they would have spoken out against the decisions of City Council to defund the future of CCS.

Democrats should support education; not starve it to death.

And don’t forget when the CCS Superintendent changed the retirement contribution of the Central Office administration a few years ago. To be vested into the STRS everyone contributes part of their salary into the system. Everyone, except the Central Office administration. It saves those employees thousands of dollars every year while CCS pays for their retirement contribution. It’s estimated to cost around 5 million dollars each year. Less money for the students and more for the Central Office administration. Then again, they don’t even leave their offices for the annual “Clap In” on the first day of school. Why should they?