It's no news that the largest chunk of Harford County's budget goes for public schools, or that the county provides the lion's share of the school system's budget.
So when the Harford Board of Education budget rises some 10 percent a year, while county revenues are slowing to 3 percent annual growth, it's only common sense for county government to take a harder look at how the system spends its money.
County Executive Eileen Rehrmann's idea to appoint, in conjunction with the County Council, a special commission to study Harford school spending is a good one -- as long as the panel is not used to intimidate the Board of Education into surrendering the fight for improved schools.
The commission would provide an important insight, independent of the bureaucratic school budget approval process that seems to drag on forever.
Mrs. Rehrmann notes that 83 percent of the increase in county general revenues over the past four years has gone to public schools. To fund the proposed 1995-96 school budget, Harford would have to raise the property tax rate by a whopping 50 cents per $100. Meanwhile, revenues from property taxes and income taxes will grow by less than 3 percent, she warns.
It's not as if the schools are throwing away the county's budget money ($97 million this year.) Much of the money goes for extra teachers and supplies to educate an additional 1,200 pupils or so that enter the Harford public schools each year. School employees got modest living-cost raises, and the county had to pay their Social Security taxes formerly paid by the state.
Mrs. Rehrmann's penchant for crying wolf, and then ending up with surpluses each budget year, complicates the matter. She got the school board to return $3 million from this year's budget allocation to cover potential income shortfalls.
But there's no doubt, and Council President Joanne Parrott heartily agrees, that a performance audit of school spending is appropriate because of its large claim on the county purse. Lack of funding for materials and equipment has already rekindled the debate in county PTAs over whether they should focus on lobbying for bigger education budgets or on fund-raising for schools.
Harford schools won't get the 14 percent budget raise they seek for 1995-96. But a school spending commission could provide some important perspectives on where cuts can be made, as well as where increases are justified.