April 11, 2006
RALEIGH – In the last eight years, North Carolina public schools have increased in personnel by 19 percent, a new John Locke Foundation Spotlight shows. Even school districts that are losing kids are still gaining employees.
The problem is bureacracy, said the report author, JLF education policy analyst Terry Stoops. The growth in public school staffs is not caused by federal or state mandates or population increases, Stoops said, but because public school systems are bureaucracies looking after themselves.
“School districts are hiring more administrators, teachers, and other personnel than ever before,” Stoops said. “North Carolina public school spending on salaries and benefits increased by nearly $1 billion in the past two years.”
Lawmakers need to change school funding policies, Stoops said. Public school funding should follow the student, not be given directly to the school. That would ensure the schools had enough money to educate each child.
“Since 1997-98, enrollment in the public schools has gone up by 11 percent,” Stoops said. “During that same time, personnel has increased by 19 percent.”
North Carolina has 115 public school districts. Stoops’ report focuses on the 36 districts that had declining enrollment since 1997-98. In those districts, total enrollment fell by nearly 10,000 students — but they added more than 800 new administrators, teachers, and other personnel.
Stoops said that only four of those districts experienced personnel increases that were likely because of local reform efforts. Two districts — Columbus and Martin counties — cut personnel as enrollment declined.
Other districts experienced growth in personnel that matched or, in some cases, outpaced their decline in enrollment, Stoops said. In the last eight years, Carteret County gained 117 new public-school personnel even though public-school enrollment fell by nearly 300 students. Craven County saw public-school staff numbers swell by 142 while its enrollment thinned by 278 students.
“Since the 1997-98 academic year, Gates County lost 13 students but added 35 new school positions,” Stoops said. “Lexington City Schools added 60 new positions as it lost 59 students. Rutherford County gained 146 new personnel despite losing 115 students.”
The public schools need to take steps to reduce the bureaucracy, Stoops said. He recommended having public money follow the student rather than being directly given to the schools.
He also called on the legislature to require the Department of Public Instruction to issue detailed personnel reports on the North Carolina School Report Cards web site. Parents could use the information to make better decisions about their children’s education.
“A bureaucracy doesn’t voluntarily reduce itself, so the legislature and citizens need to act,” Stoops said. “Simply put, declining enrollment in a public school should mean fewer people on staff, not more.”
Terry Stoops’s Spotlight report, “Public School Hiring Frenzy: As Personnel Increases, So Does Bureaucracy,” is at the Locke Foundation’s web site. For more information, please contact Terry Stoops at 919-828-3876 or [email protected]. To arrange an interview, contact JLF communications director Mitch Kokai at (919) 306-8736 or [email protected].