The latest fiscal fiasco surrounding the Portland School Budget highlights the need for greater accountability. Clearly, $2.5 million is no chump-change and such a deficit needs an immediate and effective remedy.
Perhaps what is even more disturbing than the deficit is how no one in the school department is taking responsibility for the mismanagement. School budget managers said that they were “blindsided� by the deficit. Yet, an audit report on October 6, 2006 outlined a series of school budget flaws.
Once these folks were done being “surprised� by the deficits, the search for a scapegoat began. But rather than holding individuals and departments responsible for the fiscal snafu, “the district's software� was blamed for the deficit.
While technology may seem to be a plausible scapegoat under the dome of city hall, such an excuse fails to pass the straight-face-test outside of the bureaucracy.
Computers are the tools of the budget managers…not the managers themselves. Those individuals sitting behind the computers should have recognized the overspending by the schools and immediately made the public aware of the budget problems.
The failure to of school managers to alert the public about this mess points to a systemic problem that must be addressed. Sitting around a room and pointing fingers at the computers is not acceptable oversight.
In the wake of the school budget deficit, the Portland Taxpayers’ Association outlined some laudable reforms. Included in those reforms was the creation of a Citizen’s Budget and Finance Review Committee to monitor the negotiation of city and school personnel contracts, the creation of the school and city budgets, and monthly reviews of the actual performance of both budgets.
Ultimately, Portland taxpayers pay the price for the mismanagement of the school budget. Why shouldn’t they be given a greater say over the budget management?
