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Witholding payment
Unsatisfied customer
Morrisville raises legitimate concerns about costs and outcomes at the technical high school.
When you don't get what you're paying for, stop paying. That's what smart consumers do. And if Morrisville school board President Bill Hellman is anything - and he's been called lots of things - he's a smart consumer.
To that end, the Morrisville School District has stopped payments to Bucks County Technical High School, which charges Morrisville roughly $15,000 for each of the 51 students Morrisville sends to the tech school. (Next September that bill rises to $18,000 per student.)
No, the district hasn't chosen to become a deadbeat; it will simply put its next payment to the tech school in an escrow account. Call Morrisville an unsatisfied customer.
Hellman's gripe is twofold: 1. The tech school is too expensive; and 2. It's not doing the job academically.
First issue first: Hellman points out that Morrisville's payments to the school "for last year and projected for the next year (2011-12) + has increased approximately $400,000. + That is an approximately 76 percent increase in two years."
A whopping increase for sure, bringing Morrisville's total yearly bill to $767,000. (Remember, that number will go up next year.)
Hellman, who is a certified public accountant, knows a thing or two about finances. And in his estimation, all of the technical school's sending districts - six counting Morrisville - could save a combined $15 million annually if the tech school operated solely as a part-time "technical" school.
That's what it used to be. Time was students attended the school for a technical education only, rotating back to their home school every two weeks for academic instruction. That system changed a few years ago when the tech school morphed into a comprehensive school, meaning it provides academic instruction as well as vocational training. It also operates full time.
That brings us to Hellman's other issue: that the technical school isn't meeting its academic requirements.
To their credit, technical school officials have come up with a plan to remedy that shortcoming. Just this week the school unveiled plans for a "freshman academy" beginning next year. Under the plan, intensified instruction in reading and math will be provided to incoming students who did not score at the proficient level in state assessment tests.
Our compliments to tech school officials for recognizing a need and coming up with a plan to address it. Still, Hellman's complaints merit some attention.
As he points out, the county's other two technical high schools remain part-time institutions. Did the Lower Bucks school make a mistake going full time? It's a debate worth having, especially with school districts facing huge financial challenges, including significant reductions in state and federal funding. Would the $15 million Hellman cited come in handy at this time?
For the record, Morrisville spends approximately $17,000 a year per student at the district high school. So the tech school's cost won't be dramatically higher next year - just $1,000 more per student. What's worrisome is the dramatic increase in the technical school's costs over the past two years, at least in Morrisville's case.
Hellman is right to sound an alarm and, as any smart consumer would do, withhold payment if costs aren't contained and service doesn't improve.
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