Cutthroat cutbacks

Shrinking enrollment prompted the Cincinnati Board of Education to order cutbacks in the district's $1 billion school rebuilding program. So Supt. Rosa Blackwell submitted a plan that calls for cutting about 7,000 seats from the 51 new and remodeled schools in the plan. The proposed cuts include reducing capacity at Walnut Hills High School by more than 400 students and shrinking several popular Montessori programs in other buildings.

If this is a game of chicken between Blackwell and the board majority it should stop. She reportedly wanted fewer cutbacks, believing the enrollment will go back up as the district's programs, facilities and test scores improve. But she was told to make the cuts deeper because the board doesn't want to over build.

Cutting into the district's most popular features, which is what Walnut Hills and the Montessori programs are, is counter-productive. These programs often have waiting lists and the way to increase enrollment is to offer more of the best programs, not less. Just announcing that such cuts are under consideration probably causes some parents thinking of sending their kids to CPS to look for other options.

The superintendent and board are wrong if they think this is an education issue. It is Marketing 101.