The Jefferson County Public School board’s recent proposal to eliminate nearly $144 million they overspent is a painful, but necessary course correction.
While some of these cuts involve the elimination of roughly 300 central office positions, the individuals in these roles did nothing wrong. They are victims of a system that allowed administrative bloat to flourish, creating jobs that never should have existed in the first place.
Sacrifices will be necessary. That’s inevitable when a school board fails to provide proper budget oversight for years. While students may face some service cutbacks, the reality is that JCPS, with an annual budget of over $2 billion, still has ample resources to provide high-quality education. The district currently spends, on average, $17,300 per child annually. That ranks much higher than Fayette or Oldham counties and far exceeds the state average.
To the JCPS board: don’t even think about raising property taxes to fix the mess created by your own poor oversight. Our community, especially senior citizens on fixed incomes, should not be forced to foot the bill for leadership that failed to do its duty.
I’m Bill Lamb, and that’s my Point of View.
