A few weeks ago, the OBSERVER and Post-Journal printed an article about the extremely high cost of running our public schools.

The OBSERVER and Post-Journal were right to point out that an average cost of $30,000 per student per year, with some districts spending as much as $36,000 per year per student, was extravagant – bordering on the obscene.

There are two areas in the local budgets that are totally out of control, and which could, with some discipline, be greatly and significantly reduced. One area is debt service. The other area is building projects. It is long past time when every item in a proposed building project needs to be examined with a miser’s gimlet eye.

Several years ago, at a school board meeting, I questioned the necessity of an item in a proposed project. With the exasperated air of a weary teacher or parent explaining patiently to a recalcitrant child, the architect said, “Mr. Zollinger, you do not understand. The state is going to spend the money. The state is going to spend the money foolishly. Given those two facts, they may as well spend the money here.” What was left unsaid was that if the money were spent here, it would maximize the architect’s fee. (Please excuse my cynicism).

Let us discuss OPM. It has been said over and over and over that the easiest thing to do in this world is spend Other People’s Money. That is a huge part of the sales pitch on projects. The local taxpayer will only pay 15% of the interest and principal and the great State of New York will pay the other 85%. That is as big a lie as ever to come out of Albany. The state of New York is not going to pay one penny of interest or principal. The state is going to go to the taxpayers in the other 675 districts in New York and extort from those poor people the other 85%. If you want me to believe the myth of the state paying, let us take a trip to Albany and you can show me the Magic Orchard where money drops gently from the trees, or you can show me the spinning wheel where Rumpelstiltskin Hochul spins straw into gold.

Meanwhile an all-knowing financial guru shows up at the board meetings and tells the assembled board that it is bad policy and unwise management to pay debt down to zero. According to the experts, if you want to do right by your taxpayers, keep the credit cards maxed out. Sorry, but I just do not believe that. Money may not buy happiness, but crushing debt creates a whole lot of misery.

Then we need to talk about the “perverse incentive.” The best examples of this are salesmen working on commission. Let us pick on some, not all, car salesmen. A customer walks into the dealership. The customer needs a $40,000 truck. However, the salesman will make a much higher commission if he can talk the customer into a $60,000 truck. The temptation of the higher commission creates a “perverse incentive” where the salesman’s economic interest is contrary to the customer’s interest. Since architects are paid on commission, it automatically creates the temptation of perverse incentive to spend as much money as possible. Several years ago, afterPine Valley merged its football team with Gowanda, an architect spent a great deal of enthusiasm and passion trying to sell new lights on the Pine Valley football field at a phenomenal cost. That was a perverse incentive.

How many students are enrolled in the public schools of Chautauqua County? How much money has been spent by county schools on building projects in the last 30 years? $400 million? $500 million? MORE than that? What is the aggregate bonded indebtedness of the schools in Chautauqua County? How much of that expense was necessity and how much was frivolous boondoggle?

How much is the aggregate debt service in the county for the 24-25 school year? Divide that by the number of students to get per student per year cost of debt service. Get debt and debt service under control and you will see a serious reduction in the annual cost per student per year.

Larry Zollinger is a South Dayton resident.