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Voice of The Southern: Time to eliminate regional superintendents

Posted: Sunday, September 4, 2011

Our View: Gov. Pat Quinn is right. The duties of regional school superintendents can be redistributed and the costs greatly decreased.

As one education labor dispute continues locally at SIU, there is another dispute happening at the state level -one that involves schoolchildren and lawmakers across Illinois.

For more than two months, regional superintendents of schools have been working without pay. It has been a fierce battle that began when Gov. Pat Quinn first recommended the elimination of the position during his February budget address.

When the Legislature did not comply, he used his power of the line-item veto to slash funding for the position from the fiscal year 2012 budget. Late last month, a judge upheld Quinn's decision.

Meanwhile, the regional superintendents continue to work without pay. They say the job, and its duties, are necessary for children to receive the best education. Quinn says the position is the type of bureaucratic redundancy the state can do without.

We say: Good on you, governor.

At a time when the state is struggling to pay its bills and is billions of dollars in the hole, it needs to find every way possible to save money. And if education must face cuts, it's certainly better to take millions of dollars away from administrative salaries than taking that money out of already underfunded class-rooms.

The duties performed by regional superintendents are necessary, no doubt. They certify the people who have the most direct contact with children - teachers and bus drivers. They must sign off on school construction and repairs - and ask people in Carterville how nice their new school is, or people in Harrisburg how necessary a new building is. They also serve as liaison between school superintendents and the state.

But while the duties are essential, the position is not. These are duties that can be transferred to other people with relative ease. Certification can be done at the state level, and other duties can be formed by a combination of a school superintendent panel and local, county and state governments.

And, perhaps most importantly, the less money Illinois spends on administrators, the less money Illi-nois has to cut from classroom spending. In the regional office for Jackson and Perry counties, for example, there are $183,000 in combined salaries the state has traditionally paid. Add benefits and other costs, and multiply that by 44 regional offices statewide, and it's easy to see how this move can slash millions of dollars from the state's education budget - a budget that needs to be spent on teachers and students, not on unnecessary layer of leaders.

Hopefully, this will be the first of several major steps taken to revamp the educational system in Illinois. Along the way, consolidation of districts should also happen, as it's another smart, cost-cutting maneuver that won't result in lost classrooms or teachers. But the revamp has to start, and this is the time and place.

We're not crazy about Quinn's idea of having counties pay for regional superintendents by using personal property replacement tax revenue given to them from the state. After all, county governments are already cash-strapped, using those funds and they don't need an additional cost.

Still, Quinn is on the right path by saying the state will no longer foot this bill.

Funding for regional superintendents will be a hot topic when the Legislature reconvenes for the fall veto session. And on the heels of a promising session in which lawmakers actually worked together to create a sound, reasonable budget within the state's means, we urge them to once again be reasonable and act in the state's financial interests.