The Central Baton Rouge school system plans to add 2,000 new students to its student body during the next four years, according to The Advocate’s reports Oct. 28 and Nov. 2.A year ago the Central Baton Rouge school system broke away from the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, and it hasn’t gotten off to the smoothest start. During the past year, Central schools have been struggling with financing, and at this point they simply don’t have the money to handle this many new students.Adding students calls for added space and an increase in faculty costing the school system money it doesn’t have. The school system has come up with a temporary solution of leasing out a fifth building and adding temporary buildings to the other four schools. It would eventually like to construct a new building that would be covered in a tax plan.A $98 million tax plan that has already been rejected would have funded the new building and improved the other four old buildings. After it was rejected, the school board then voted against rolling forward its property tax. Had they decided to do so, the school system would have received $301,000 annually but could have risked losing a chance of passing a tax to fund new school facilities. Sometimes it’s worth taking a risk to get to a solution. Not trying to improve the situation by rolling forward the tax and receiving this annual payment may not sit well with voters.As property assessments rise, tax rates fall. Rolling the tax forward is used when the voting body votes to restore taxes back to their higher rate. Once taxes are restored back to a higher rate, the voting body would pocket the added revenue from the higher property assessments.On top of the obvious absence of funding, the school system is $750,000 in debt. The payment on this debt was originally due Oct. 15, but was pushed back 90 days. School officials say they will be able to pay off the debt by January. Michael Faulk, the schools’ superintendant, reported the additional enrollment means the school system should receive another $3.5 million in state funding. “While this measure does ease our cash problem, it by no means solves our cash flow problems,” school board member Marty Guilbeau told the Advocate.Right now, the school should be taking out annual loans until it can become more financially stable which begs the question: Is this really the best time to be expanding the student body? Starting a new school has a lot of immediate costs. Not only does it have to buy the buildings and hire the staff but it has to set up classrooms with desks, computers and other essentials. Plus, there is insurance to be paid on the buildings and other starting costs.Rather than adding another school to the already new school system, perhaps the Central school system should focus its attention on the students it has. The school should be concerned with improvement rather than growth.Amendment 8 in the 2006 local election stated that Central Baton Rouge could form its own parish and therefore have more control over its tax money. The decision to separate from East Baton Rouge cost a lot of money and affects Baton Rouge’s demographics. Voters wanted this change, meaning they were willing to help pay for the new school system. Where is that help now? A better education always sounds alluring. Increased taxes never do. But what happens in a situation where the two are synonymous? Taxes need to be increased by locals to make the Central Baton Rouge school system successful.Studies show classes with a smaller teacher-to-student ratio, especially at an elementary level, increases student test scores and class participation, according to the The Los Angeles Times. If 2,000 new students are added to the Central school system, class sizes are likely to increase because it will be financially difficult to hire enough new teachers. Eventually teachers will be hired and class sizes will drop, but until then, children who have already spent years of their education in large classes will be treated as the guinea pigs for the new school system.At this point it seems clear Central Baton Rouge school systems can’t support such a great influx of new students.—-Contact Nikki Oden at [email protected]