Monday, November 24, 2003

Changes at Butler School Last July I joined a group of 58s who toured Butler Grade School, at the corner of Laurel and MacArthur in southwest Springfield. Butler was our school from 1945 to 1954. After 49 years, we were pleased to find many familiar sights: murals on the walls, swinging doors on the restrooms, and terrazo floors in the hallways. Everything seemed a bit teeny, but then we had all changed sizes, too. Our host was Kathi Lee, principal of Butler, which today is a K-5 school rather than the K-8 we attended. She patiently allowed us to wander about and heard our stories and questions. To us the school seemed little changed, but then it has, in ways that were not visible on that hot summer morning. Since our days there, the sociology and demography of Springfield has changed greatly. In 1949, Butler drew its students from three sub-divisions, known to developers as Holmes, Jerome, and Leland Grove. Those neighborhoods were largely middle-class, a status that included nearly 80 per cent of the residents. Today the wealthy sub-divisions lie farther west, while the older neighborhoods have lost income. Since 1994, the number of low-income students attending Butler has jumped from 26.4 to 46.8 per cent. That means less revenue to the school system, and smaller appropriations to the schools. (Hence our class raised $12,000 in 1998 to buy SHS some new computers.) Some Butler parents, fearing a loss of quality education, have begun to transfer their children elsewhere. They have also complained that principal Kathi Lee is to blame for this situation. You may read about the present state of this controversy in today's Journal-Register. (Thanks to Ann Tobin Hart for the news tip.) My opinion: no one person is to blame here. This process has occurred all over the USA, as a consequence of the way we fund public education, via property taxes. That was a good system when the middle class was so broad, but it has narrowed and thus today rich folks have good schools, while poor folks have bad. One way to revise the funding of public education is to imitate wealthy private colleges: create endowment. Endowment is managed investment that earns dividends and grows, year after year. The schools spend only 5-8 per cent of the interest, returning the rest to principle. (That's how Princeton gained an endowment equal to the GNP of Belgium.) The USA could create principle by inviting corporations, foundations, and citizens to make tax-deductible contributions to a National Endowment for Education. In the early years, interest payments might go to help schools in blighted and declining neighborhoods. With good management, the endowment would become a major funding source and relieve citizens of their high property taxes. All of my education was in public schools. As a senior citizen, I want to support the system. I hate to see a great school like Butler have problems. And I want to help a public servant like Kathi Lee continue to do good work. What do you think? Do you have other ideas or suggestions? Let's hear them. 11:32:01 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 William Howarth. Last update: 12/3/03; 11:26:34 PM.