Right Opposition

Baldwin County Schools Superintendent Dr. Alan Lee should be applauded for demonstrating solid leadership of the local school system. After years of malaise it’s nice to see someone taking charge. Of course leadership comes with headaches and Lee has a few.
His decision to close the K-1 center in Fairhope angered many parents and they will likely not soon forget it. K-1 is a historical landmark that means a lot to the people of the colony but it is proving expensive. It’s disappointing that it needs to close but not surprising. Lee could have ignored K-1 but then that wouldn’t be leadership.

His next big project seems to be a reconfiguring of the elementary and intermediate schools in the county to drop student/teacher ratios. In some cases class sizes for a single teacher would drop from 35 to 22. That’s a 37% drop in the ratio. He deserves much praise if it pulls it off. It will take a year and you can bet there will be extreme controversy over the plan. Attendance zones will have to be reconfigured. Watch for loud complaints about this one. But in the end, Lee’s plan should be approved.
Leadership is never easy and it always brings trouble. We think Lee is to be applauded for his work.

The Obama Administration has released its proposed budgetfor the coming fiscal year. Deficit reduction does not occur but some tax breaks are eliminated in an effort to reduce the growth of the deficit. According to Terri Cullen, writing for Reuters News Service, teachers will be loosing a $250 per year tax credit for classroom teaching supplies. Note, this is a credit, not a deduction and it is removed in the 2011 fiscal budget.

Anyone who knows public school teachers knows they spend considerably on their classrooms every year. This is money from their pockets and is often not reimbursed by their school systems. In our Baldwin County system teachers are already being hit by limited supplies and decreasing support staff. This will add a touch more burden to their work.

Other middle class tax breaks are also threatened. For example, the tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses is set to be eliminated too.

(NOTE: Reuters has pulled the story from their site but it should still be available at the link above. They say it will run later…)