More homework for TPS

THE BUDGET resolution the Toledo Board of Education approved this week will demand big cuts in programs and services, whether or not voters approve the school district's request for a new income tax on next month's ballot. But until the district can show a lot more progress on trimming its personnel costs, which make up the vast majority of its budget, the tax increase can't be justified.

That's a tough call. The 0.75 percent tax on earned income the district seeks would raise $17.5 million this year to help plug a $30 million budget hole. Even if voters go along, the district still would eliminate or curtail a slew of popular items, including elementary summer school, freshman sports, crossing guards, school nurses, and textbook purchases. A majority of board members say they want to save Libbey High School, which had been marked for shutdown at a projected savings of nearly $1.3 million.

If the tax measure fails, classes will get larger and the spending cuts will get even bigger in such areas as student transportation, middle-school and low-participation high school sports, and offerings at the Toledo Technology Academy.

Avoiding, or at least minimizing, that dismal prospect is why it remains essential for the Toledo Public Schools to win reasonable wage and benefit concessions from all of its employees, both union and nonunion. Employee compensation accounts for more than 80 percent of district spending.

But direct pay adjustments account for just 9 percent of the budget cuts approved by the board - about $3.3 million. And even then, they remain merely "proposed." An agreement by the district superintendent, treasurer, and cabinet members to take three unpaid furlough days offers useful symbolism, but scant savings. More-tangible gestures from the district hierarchy are in order.

An apparent agreement between the district and the Toledo Federation of Teachers, which would have imposed on union members a 1 percent pay cut and higher co-payments for health care, collapsed last week. District executives balked at unspecified language in the agreement.

The willingness of the teachers union to negotiate concessions to limit layoffs does stand in contrast with the absolute refusal by most of Toledo's municipal unions to take any responsibility for resolving the city's fiscal crisis. The union that represents school administrators has endorsed a similar agreement.

Still, the proposed concessions would represent an estimated 1.4 percent of employee pay and benefits. Many Toledoans have sacrificed much more to keep their jobs. Many of them are making up their minds about the TPS tax question.

Despite an economy that remains in the dumps, we believe that Toledoans - including those without children enrolled in the public schools - care about the quality of education available to the district's 26,000 students.

They are looking for reasons, notably the notion of shared sacrifice, to support the tax. TPS needs to provide those reasons.