Educational Finance in Tough Times

By Robert "Bob" McLaughlin

The state financial crisis is seriously impacting education. The "belt tightening" can bring us together rather than divide us if we do it properly.

Meanwhile, we must do better than just survive. We must raise achievement, pay increasing costs for almost everything and help our staff keep up with the cost of living as much as possible. Often the push for the scarce resources leads to bad feeling and low morale.

A better solution is to join in conversation together to find long term solutions through honest sharing of information, honoring suggested ideas, and probably mutual short-term suffering to get us all through the tough times with hopes for future restoration.

The principles of strategic planning and interest-based bargaining are methods to bring people together, even on tough topics. As a trained practitioner of both processes, I will encourage either their use or some other similar procedure that accomplishes bringing all side together as we plan our way through a better future.