Round 1 in schools funding fight

Facing $1.3 billion in proposed cuts to school funding, state Education Commissioner David Steiner unveiled 53 recommendations Monday aimed at cutting costs. The suggestions make sense because they involve ending state mandates on issues that should have been under local control all along.

It's hard to believe the state forces districts to observe Conservation Day (formerly Arbor Day) and requires schools to notify students if their body mass index is high. Ending these mandates won't save many dollars, but does make sense.

More notable, though, is that as minor as even the most serious suggestion on the list is in the grand scheme of the fiscal crisis, it still attracted opposition.

Steiner supported letting districts eliminate now-mandated middle-school courses in technology, and home and career skills.

Such courses are more important in some districts than others. Administrators, with input from parents, can be entrusted to decide whether and when to provide them, since many argue these courses are best taught at the high school level.

Yet the state Regents rejected the suggestion.

It's dauntingly hard to eliminate even the most obvious costs and requirements. Every threatened program finds an advocate. But major spending reductions are coming. If the cuts are to be made in the way that preserves education most, educators must not fight the changes that harm the schools least.