Daily News Editorial

Tuesday front pages from around Iowa indicate other schools face the same dilemma that Estherville Lincoln Central does-cutting budgets and reducing staff.

A front page story in the Quad-City Times proclaims "Moline Board OKs $3.5M in cuts: School music program saved, but other jobs will be eliminated."

The Hawk Eye (Moline) says "District ponders tough cuts: Superintendent's $2.7M plan calls for larger classes, staff reductions."

The Telegraph Herald (Dubuque) says "Schools' options for staff cuts spelled out" with the deck saying "Superintendent says up to 10 administrators; 138 teachers, nurses and and counselors; and 89 others could be cut, but she expects fewer."

The Fort Dodge Messenger says, "FD school board cuts nearly $1 million: with the story saying the district will likely have to cut another $1 million from the budget next year.

Compared to the larger schools, ELC's proposed cuts of $550,000 don't seem so much, but for rural districts like ours, it's just as tough.

Hopefully, the school board and administration can find a solution that's not too painful for the children or the community.

Now is the time to think creatively - and quickly. With its position as a pioneer in distance education, both with the ICN and the community college online consortium, Iowa should again show its creativity by putting that technology to work to help school districts solve what seems to be a universal problem. - budget shortfalls.

Perhaps a good role that the Iowa Department of Education could play in this scenario would be to act as a "talent agent" for state schools. Maybe the education department could develop a pool of schools that have teaching staff available for sharing.

Instead of one school having to lay off an art teacher and hire a math teacher, perhaps that district could share its art program with a neighboring district and take advantage of another district's math teacher via ICN or some other distance technology.

It would be a win-win for school districts statewide, and it would certainly not cost that much to see if it would work.