Editorial: Local control works best

Talk about it

The Public Opinion’s editorial board has been a strong supporter of local control in education for years. The people at the helm of local control in our community, however, are now struggling with some difficult decisions thanks to the decision by the governor and Legislature to reduce the amount of state aid to education. Whether you like the actions taken in Pierre recently, the reality is there are some tough decisions that need to be made in the coming months.

The toughest decision facing the Watertown School District is coming up with $1.2 million in budget cuts for the 2011-12 school year. About 350 people attended a budget workshop the district sponsored recently to get a look at the potential cuts that could be made. Two more workshops will be held in the near future and, in July, the school board will formally adopt its budget for the next school year.

Lake Area Technical Institute is also facing some tough decisions. Recently, the University of South Dakota announced it will end an articulation agreement with LATI in 2012 because of budgetary cuts. That partnership goes back to 1988 and allowed students completing the practical nursing program at LATI to pursue a registered nursing degree through USD. LATI has already said it will consider creating new registered nursing partnerships with other schools or start a registered nursing program of its own to help meet the demand for more RNs.

The important thing in both these cases is the decisions that will be made to address the budget shortfalls will be made here and not by some bureaucrat or state official in Pierre. And because the decisions are being made locally, people who will be affected by the actions taken to cope with dealing with less money have an opportunity to let school officials know how they think the budget reductions in grades K-12 or a new program at LATI should be handled.

That’s the beauty of local control. The people making the decisions and those who will be affected by them can meet each other face to face, discuss options, impact and alternatives and then come up with a plan that best meets the needs of those involved.

Cutting $1.2 million from the K-12 budget won’t be easy nor will starting a new RN articulation agreement at LATI. But because those decisions will be made in the community where the impact will be felt, we’re confident whatever decisions are ultimately made will be in the best interests of all involved.

Tags: opinion, editorial, columns, updates