The need for a stone soup budget.

Many of us at one time or another have heard the "stone soup" fable, the story of a soldier making his way through a war-torn land, bringing with him the seemingly magical stones he uses as the starter for a stew that will feed an entire village. Of course, his stones are simply the catalysts that stimulate villagers to contribute their carefully hoarded and independent ingredients to the bubbling broth that grows richer and richer, as the villagers contribute what they can.

The stones are seen as the cause of the nourishing meal they all share. In fact, it is the combination of many separate small offerings that makes for the stew that feeds the multitude.

I always wondered whether the villagers went back to jealously guarding their individual vegetables and separately held salt pork once the soldier was gone. Did it dawn on them that even without the soldier's stones, the segregated offerings of the many brought together into a single pot made for a thicker, richer mix, providing a more comprehensive sustenance for a much greater number than any separate and isolated individual could enjoy on her or his own?

Personal Stashes

As those of us in schools work on budget requests for the following year, we seek out ways to make a stew that will sustain our students with far fewer ingredients than we have ever had before. We look around for those magical stones that somehow galvanized the community in the fable into looking beyond their own limited stashes to the broader picture of overall good.

The danger of seriously reducing and limiting budget requests is that it courts the potential disaster that comes when children whose academic diet up to now has been adequate to support their growth and development but will not be nourished in the future.

We know that teachers and parents have contributed from their own pockets when they learn a specific ingredient is in short supply. We have seen creative schools pool resources and carefully husband their materials to be sure there is enough for some level of sustenance for everyone. PTAs and other support groups help fund equipment and supply needs through fund raising. Sports booster clubs have generated income for the specific needs of their programs. Surely much has been done to enhance the stone soup already being served in our schools.

Now we need to promote the understanding among all groups that the stone soup they make must be seen as part of a larger mix of ingredients. It must be viewed as a combination of resources that will ensure the educational health and well-being of the entire school community in the long term, without which we will struggle and sacrifice the least powerful and the most hungry among us for all the wrong reasons.

Rather than looking at the meal as one designed to feed only one segment of our population--whether a school, a team or a club--we must envision and embrace a coming together analogous to the one experienced by the small town in the fable.

Education Ingredients

The ingredients we know will create the best possible education for our children--small classes, professional development, clean, safe and suitable facilities, to name only a few--must be staunchly supported. To feed only some while ignoring the needs of others is as pernicious a form of discrimination as any other. And the only way around such a situation is for educational and political leaders, starting at the local and state levels, to step forward and supply the very "stones" that encourage sharing and engender consolidation of resources.

It no longer can be about selling gift wrap and poinsettias and entertainment books. It cannot be about raffles and benefits and sponsorships, and it should not be a constant drama of juggled property values and tweaked millage rates.

Rather, it is about raised voices, about the need for stable, dependable educational funding in the face of political expediency and the appetites of the voracious consumers among us.

We need to establish a stone soup budgeting process that shares rather than separates. We need a process that ensures equal support and equal options for learning rather than setting up choices that only a few can access. Where are those stones when you need them?

Bruce Storm, a former superintendent, is assistant executive director of EASTCONN, 376 Hartford Turnpike, Hampton, CT 06247. E-mail: [e-mail]