“Run faster,” was his advice.

For me, it’s a metaphor.

How many times, in our personal or working lives, do we try to solve problems by doing just a little bit more (or less) of what we’ve been doing?

That was John Henry’s response to the steam drill. He swung that 9-pound hammer faster and faster – until he laid it down and died.

Our school district is like that.

The five-year forecast is pretty clear. Given our enrollment projections, and Iowa’s school finance formulas (and proposed legislation), our rainbow has no pot of gold.  The budget cutting process we’re now going through looks to be an annual event.

Our options?

One is to continue doing what we’ve been doing for the last ten years, but with less and less money every year.  Students, parents, staff, administrators and board members will continue to complain.

But we’ll be comfortable. It’s what we know.

We will avoid the dreaded process called “change.”

There is another.

Business consultants call it “thinking outside the box.” In Hollywood they say “let’s take it from the top.” Inventors do it all the time. A profession that helps others do it is called “systems analysts.”

One of my favorite systems analysis stories involves a hotel losing clientele because of its slow elevators.

An elevator problem, right? Call the elevator company.

“Run faster.” Slight improvement, but complaints continued.

A systems analyst was called. She said, “This isn’t an ‘elevator problem,’ it’s a ‘complaints problem.’”

The solution? Mirrors across the hall from elevator doors. Customers’ primping always took longer than elevators. Better results, problem solved – and no costly elevator repairs.

“You get what you pay for?” Consumer Reports proves that’s a lie every month. Creative problem solvers prove it every day.

Problems often have solutions that simultaneously cut costs, while improving quality (e.g., speed, safety, output).

I’ve mentioned before my efforts as Maritime Administrator with containerization. Marginal improvements in cargo handling could come from slightly fewer workers on the docks, or larger loads in slings. But containerization simultaneously (a) improved delivery schedules, (b) virtually eliminated pilferage, (c) created an integrated transportation system from ship to rail to truck – all while (d) slashing costs.

(In this case, I guess, “thinking inside the box”!)

The staff responsible for chipping the rust off of our thousands of reserve fleet ships wanted a substantial budget increase. My response? “I’m cutting your budget in half. You figure out how to do it.”

Their response? New equipment that did a better job – and saved taxpayers millions of dollars a year. The inventors were rewarded with a $50,000 bonus. Win, win.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke here of his “Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” How’s that for an innovative alternative to apartheid, war crime trials and guerilla warfare?
 
Want a kitchen example?

Many singles (and families) cook up a pot of food over the weekend that lasts them all week. Result? Better nutrition than junk food, less work -- and reduced cost.

Our school district made it without borrowing last year because the central administrators turned down every last-minute request for special projects.

Bravo for their political courage.

But what an awful way to have to run a school district.

Are there creative educational alternatives?

I’m convinced that – if we were willing to do it (a big “if”) – this District could come up with ways to deliver a better quality academic program to our 10,500 students for 75 to 85 percent of what we’re now spending.

Available funds won’t increase. But we’d have a margin, some flexibility.

No more annual $500,000-700,000 budget cutting sessions. No more having to say “no” to every request to fund worthwhile, innovative programs and pilot projects.

How to do it?  Ask and answer the following questions.

• What do we want our graduates to (a) know, and (b) be able to do?

• What do research, and the experience of 14,000 school districts, suggest are the alternative ways to accomplish those ends?

•  Which are the most cost effective?

•  Pick one, strip everything else from the budget, and do it.

Will we, like Robert Kennedy, “dream of things that never were and ask ‘why not’?” Or will we freeze in place, terrorized at the prospect of change and the unknown, while telling our kids, “Run faster”?

Nicholas Johnson is a member of the Iowa City School Board.