Commissioner encourages stalling

I had heard that the Commissioner of education had encouraged districts to stall on their budgets as much as possible, but I hadn't found where until now.

Here it is:

Much needs to be done before we can make commitments to your districts for a specific amount of funds under any of these programs. But I expect that we will be answering most of these questions over the next week or two. I know that many of you have budget timetables that are mandated either by town bylaws, city charters, or regional agreements. To the degree that you have the flexibility to delay your final budget decisions until we can get you this information, you may wish to do so. Otherwise, you should be discussing with your town and city officials contingency plans for revisiting your budget later this spring, after final allocations of the federal funds have been released.

(emphasis added)

The piece that the Commissioner doesn't have to care about it the relationship rift this causes--or deepens--between the schools and their districts. While cities and towns around the state are slashing budgets, laying people off, canceling programs; while the state forecast seems to get worse every week; while the first time the Dow goes up is a cause for parties to break out; the Worcester Public Schools appear to be riding above it, immune.

They aren't, of course, and even if Worcester gets the highest amount forecasted, we're still going to have a shortfall for next year. When the federal stimulus money runs out in FY12, we will be in even worse shape, unless something significant changes. The lack of motion on the budget here in Worcester, though, is leading to a growing discontent among taxpayers. I keep hearing, "Don't they care? Aren't they going to do anything?"

Could we at least broach the topic?