Pubdate: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 Source: Advocate, The (LA) Copyright: 2002 The Advocate, Capital City Press Contact: http://www.theadvocate.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2 COST OF CHECKS SCHOOLS' BURDEN A School Board committee is recommending that East Baton Rouge Parish schools charge people who apply for teaching jobs $25 to help cover the cost of criminal background checks on the applicants. The move quite literally would amount to passing the buck and is bad policy. Considering that the local school system must rely on uncertified teachers to fill 22 percent of its teaching jobs, it is in the best interest of the system to increase the applicant pool for teaching jobs in the public school system. The proposed policy is almost certain to discourage some potential applicants. The $25 application fee is being considered in light of increased costs associated with the necessary background checks in concert with budget cuts at the central office. The Legislature recently approved increasing State Police fees for conducting the checks from $10 to $50 each. The increase could cost the local system an additional $120,000 per year. "That's a big hit for us in a troubled budget year," said Annette Mire, the school system's human resources director. While the escalated cost of background checks certainly represents yet another challenge for a system that recently cut nearly $13 million out of its operating budget while eliminating 220 jobs, the cost of background checks is still only a tiny portion of the School Board's $296 million annual budget. While sharing the cost of background checks with job applicants is a workable solution, it isn't a very creative one, and it sends the wrong message to teachers, many of whom already spend hundreds of dollars out of their own pockets for classroom materials. More creative is an idea to funnel funds from the I CARE anti-drug counseling program to help pay for background checks, which at least in theory could protect children against drug-using teachers. If I CARE can spare the money, however, its own value might be called into question. Expenses related to background checks are an administrative cost basic to the hiring of teachers, who perform the duties most central to education. If the School Board cannot absorb those costs, how does it justify increasing the amount spent on lawyers and consultants this year by $450,000? If the front office is looking for ideas on how to cover those costs without hitting up potential new teachers, it might reconsider some of the new administrative positions it recently created, which come even while enrollment continues to decline and class sizes grow. Teachers already put up with a lot. Let's not scare them off before they even set their first foot in class. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager