Several years ago I attended a county council meeting to show  support for our beleaguered county executive who was taking  heat from the worker bees for not spending like a drunken Democrat.  That's because he was a Republican.  Anyway, I happened to pick a night when the teachers had shown up en masse to whine and pine, so I had to wait a few hours before my name was called.  This was circa 1990, when an economic downturn had hurt sales in my business along with everyone else's.  Gummint employees, of course, are immune to economic realities, hence the problem.  When I did get to the microphone, I launched.  I happened to be wearing wingtip shoes with a hole in one sole, and displayed it as exhibit A  of my "life is tough sometimes" speech.  Then I suggested that if Riva Road (referring to the Board of Education's palatial administrative office complex in Annapolis) was bulldozed, and hundreds of useless administrators sent back to classrooms, the "crisis" would be averted lickety-split.  There was no applause, although a few teachers gave me a furtive back pat on the way out.  A week later I received a letter from the Education Czar, on engraved 100% cotton Crane stationary, that said."

Dear Mr. Schultz

After last Thursday's meeting I made several inquiries about who you are, and nobody here has ever heard of you ."

"Sincerely ..."

In other words, "What?  You're just a regular taxpayer?  Eat me."

Later, the local newspaper printed a itemized list of salaries, and while I  don't have those exact figures anymore, this recent WaPost study ["School Officials Lead the Salary Pack"] of nearby Howard County's education salaries will serve to make the point.

"... 142 of 6,813 school employees make more than $100,000. Among them are 57 high, middle and elementary school principals and the director of county athletics ($119,530)"

That means 85 people who don't set foot in a classroom make more than $100,000.  Let's cut to the chase.  Here's what any board of education  requires.

• A trailer office located on an existing school's property.
• Two computer people to maintain records.
• One person to coordinate  purchases
• One administrator to settle intramural squabbles.

That's it.  A staff of five (your mileage may vary).  The individual school principals will be charged with maintaining scholastics, and be rewarded/fired by  their parent organization.  As things stand, my county's total budget request is $733,130,372 for the 2006 fiscal year. Their claim of a  75,000 student population does not seem to square with my hasty school-by-school, K-12 numbers, but what the hell, we're still talking nearly $10,000 per year, per student.   The cost to send your kid full time to nearby Bowie State University (part of the University of Maryland system) is $9,643 a year - and that includes room and board! WTF?

So much for that.  Next?