Adding transparency to school finance system DFM News ...

With its multiple employee classifications and various categories for non-personnel spending, complex formulas for each, and numerous rules for waivers and exemptions layered on top, Delaware?s school finance laws may seem to be as befuddling as the federal tax code.

?It?s not easily understood in an age when we really want a lot of quick, easy transparency,? said Karen Field Rogers, associate secretary for finance reform and resource management at the state Department of Education.

There are perhaps 25 people in the state who understand the system, said David J. Blowman, chief financial officer in the Brandywine School District. Blowman sees a paradox in the way the finance system has evolved, with new spending components added as new needs are identified and restrictions, waivers and exemptions incorporated into the law as management problems are identified.

?A complex system is antithetical to a simple transparent system. There?s a lack of trust around school districts, some of which is legitimate and some is not. The natural inclination to a lack of trust is to apply more strings. The problem is, the more you do it, the more complicated you make it. The more complicated you make it, the less transparent you make it. If it?s not transparent, the public can?t understand it. If they can?t understand it, they think you?re somehow hiding something, even if it?s just the nature of the beast.? Blowman said. ?A simple, flexible system ultimately protects taxpayer resources because it?s much simpler to compare things. It?s a lot harder to hide something in a simple system than in a complicated system. Public trust grows with transparency and understanding. When you layer more on, you?re going in the opposite direction of where you need to go.?

In the past decade, Blowman said, three school districts ran into trouble because of financial mismanagement, and the Laurel School District?s business manager pleaded guilty in 2010 to stealing more than $150,000 from the district. ?In a transparent system, that would not have happened,? Blowman said.

Source: http://www.delawarefirst.org/21869-adding-transparency-school-finance

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