Less Gripe, More Insight

On March 23, 2010, San Antonio Express News published an article by former San Antonio city councilman Glen Hartman entitled Time to consolidate school districts. Hartman has been involved in public service for almost 20 years. He has served, as mentioned, as a City Councilman for San Antonio, as Executive Director of the Texas Public Finance, Mayor of Lago Vista, and Commissioner of the Travis County Emergency Services District 1. In education, his credentials claim a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and completed coursework at Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

After the first time of reading the article, I was so appalled at the amounts of money being spent on one administrative aspect of the school districts. In reality, so much more needs to be dispersed throughout the system to the teachers, principals and children. I believe my initial reaction was Hartman's desired effect. As a fellow Texan unsatisfied with the amount of money given to educators and educational programs, I was almost to the point of looking for a nearby pitchfork and charging the nearest administrative office.

My second read offered a bit more perspective. Former Councilman Hartman used multiple dollar amounts and various numbers as the source of his strong opinion of the stated education system. The problem I have with this, is that not once was there mention of where he obtained this information from. Though I doubt he made these numbers up, it would have been helpful to have links to other sites or articles where he obtained his information.

Looking past the lack of references, on my third run through the article, I could see that Hartman's overall point was that the principals and teachers in our school districts are grossly underpaid. Millions of dollars a year are spent on the salaries of superintendents and their staff tied up in the politics of the education system. Hartman made many good points to persuade readers to be on his side but in the end, it was more of a rant than a way out. He did offer one solution. Consolidate the numerous school districts [in the greater San Antonio area (17)] into 2 or 3 and fire the rest of the superintendents and their staff. It may be a quick fix and an influx of money for educators, but, if this was implemented statewide, it could lead to an ugly and expensive unemployment issue.

Overall, I think Hartman is bringing light to an interesting issue that needs to be addressed and would benefit from further research and publicity.