Back in August of 2011, the LISD had 3,415 kids in the system. Today that number is actually LOWER at around 3,300. A DECREASE of roughly 3% in the number of students served. I’ll be generous and say the student body size is pretty much FLAT over the last eight years.
During that SAME period (between the 2011/2012 budget and the 2019/2020 budget) the following has happened to revenues and expenditures (source HERE):
Expenditures are UP 17.8% ($31.730 million to $37.387 million)
Revenues are WAY up 27.6% ($30.674 million to a whopping $39.152 million) – Think of ‘revenue‘ as ‘money taken from other people to pay for my kid’s education‘
Under ‘expenditures’ we have seen the following increases when you break down the categories:
Instruction: UP 24% ($13 million to $16.2 million)
Curr & Inst Staff Develop: UP from $122,000 to $433,000 – an increase of NEARLY FOUR FOLD! That is a 17% compound annual growth rate.
Instructional Leadership: UP from $225,000 to $653,000 – an increase of NEARLY THREE FOLD! That is a 14% compound annual growth rate.
General Administration: UP from $1.131 million to $1.440 million – an increase of 27%.
Data Processing Services: UP from $500,000 to over $1.1 million – an increase of 100% in 8 years! That is a 10% compound annual growth rate.
I know what I see here: a lot of bullshit categories exploding in cost at a ridiculous rate. Instructional leadership? Curriculum Development? Those costs increase 17% a year? Nonsense. Those are nests being feathered.
DATA PROCESSING?? Data processing costs go up 10% a year for a student body that stays the same size? Weird how technology makes things CHEAPER everywhere but in government and the school system. Who’s in charge over there…Monica and Kristy? If parents actually had to shell out this money on the first day of the school year, and little Johnny said “hey pops, I need $330 for school – that’s what it’ll cost this year to process all my data”, I think the parent would be down there screaming about being ripped off.
I’m sure the $200,000 man, Superintendent Chane Rascoe, is all over this. Surely someone who makes that kind of money is a small town is super, duper smart and can control costs and personnel.
Right?