Kansas City considers closing 31 of 61 schools

Posted by Kendall Harmon

In the pantheon of unpopular moves by school superintendents, perhaps none rivals what John Covington wants to do.

Faced with declining enrollment and a $50 million budget shortfall, the Kansas City, Mo., schools chief wants the school board to close as many as 31 of the city's 61 schools and lay off one-fourth of its employees — including 285 teachers.

Covington wants it done by the time school starts in fall. A vote could come in March.

"The bottom line is the quality of education we're offering children in Kansas City is not good enough," he says. "One reason it's not good enough is that we've tried to spread our resources over far too many schools."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • City Government

2 Comments
Posted February 24, 2010 at 6:14 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Sick & Tired of Nuance wrote:

Ok, if they can close HALF the schools and lay off ONE QUARTER of the staff and offer a BETTER quality of education for the children because they finally realized that they had “tried to spread our resources over far too many schools”, WHERE THE HECK WAS THAT REALIZATION BEFORE THE $50,000,000 BUDGET SHORTFALL???

Where were these enormous savings in tax money…say…last year, or the year before?  They didn’t wake up yesterday and suddenly have 100% more school buildings than they needed and 1/3 more staff than they needed. 

In other words, their budget has been bloated for YEARS!!!  They have been overcharging and bilking the taxpayers for YEARS!!!

Now, suddenly, when the taxpayers are tapped out, there is this epiphany that they can get rid of half the school buildings and a quarter of their staffing and do…wait for it…A BETTER QUALITY JOB!!!

The adminstrators and politicians need to be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail!!! (Metaphorically speaking, of course.)

February 24, 5:43 pm | [comment link]
2. Sidney wrote:

#1 True, but this is the beauty of our economic system: at least we have a way of rooting out this stuff.

Twenty years ago, the district enrolled more than 75,000 students. Facing suburban flight, the growth of charter schools and even the 2008 secession of eight schools to a neighboring district, Kansas City now enrolls just 17,500 students.

Wow, amazing -  somebody whose attendance numbers are declining even faster than the Episcopal Church.

February 24, 9:30 pm | [comment link]
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