For as long as the term “education reform” has been in the vernacular, it seems that teachers have been left out of the conversation. Bad teachers are held up as examples of the need for reform, and good teachers are often portrayed as rare exceptions to the rule that educators that are set in their ways and unwilling to bring innovation to the classroom. As the charter school versus traditional public school debate wages on in Cranston, teachers have once again become the scapegoat for poor performance figures.

Despite being painted as the villain in a seemingly positive reform movement, public school teachers in Cranston deserve credit for the sacrifices they made that helped Peter Nero present his budget last Wednesday.

Not just in Cranston, but in districts across the state, it has become practically customary for school administrations to request the maximum increase in funding from the city. Inevitably, the city is equally broke and denies the request. In the past, that’s what got this city into trouble, leading the way for two unsuccessful and very costly Caruolo Act lawsuits.

This year, however, it appears that the tide is turning.

For the first time in a long time, Nero hasn’t looked like someone just killed his puppy while presenting the school budget.

For starters, the city will be glad to see that the district has only requested an increase of 1.76 percent. Sure, they’d like to get that number down to zero, but even if the district is level funded, the School Committee won’t have to tear apart the entire budget and start from scratch. Finding $1.6 million in a financially strapped school system isn’t easy, but it isn’t impossible either, so Nero’s sense of optimism certainly does not appear to be false.

To the credit of the administration and CFO Joe Balducci, it took conservative budgeting to get them there. They knew, as did the independent auditor, that cost sharing and eliminating programs like EPIC and Saturday detention would save them money, but they played it safe and ended up with $3.5 million more in savings. There are still areas to improve upon (like when will we learn that utilities will always cost more than we bargain for?), but overall, the document is sound. It’s too bad that the budget took a backseat last week, because really, Nero’s presentation is the cornerstone for a successful school year and all the work that our kids do once the news crews drive away and the mobs vacate the auditorium.

Best of all, this budget lays a foundation that we can only build up from. With a financially sound district, we can begin to find ways to put programs like music, EPIC and middle school sports back into the budget, where they belong.They might not be essential to getting a high SAT score, but those programs are what get kids out of bed and to school on time, and keep them motivated to do well. The more incentive we give them, the more enriched their school experience is and the better they will perform. And if we have high performing students, everybody wins.