From an editorial in today's St. Petersburg Times, following Tuesday's story:

Pinellas School Board member Janet Clark is right. While the school system has made progress on paper in downsizing its administrative overhead, "it's a facade almost.'' Much of the success is the result of changing accounting techniques. The bottom line is that the administration is still bloated in an era of declining tax revenues, and the district needs to get more aggressive about becoming more efficient ...

Pinellas still ranks no better than the third-biggest spender on administration among the state's 12 biggest districts. Hillsborough, a bigger district and the eighth-largest in the country, spends less on administration per student. Pasco, a smaller district, spends the least of the top dozen districts. Meanwhile, the number of Pinellas district employees who earn more than $70,000 has dropped all the way from 91 to 87. That hardly reflects today's economic realities, where private companies and other local governments have dramatically downsized and become more efficient by necessity.

(Photo from imway2fat.wordpress.com)

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