Originally Posted by simple man
LOL you have to ask when something is said because this is a rather intense topic. Everybody, on all sides, look for an opening to stick their teeth into. You say something wrong, you're jumped before you can move.
Like I've said, its a topic that has been argued to death. I know that you can't get exact numbers, you can't get complete cost estimates, etc, and those are all valid issues. Of course those issues are compounded because you have never fully figured out where you're going to build, got into the nuts and bolts of things. You can't give full details on things until you figure out for sure what you're doing, otherwise you repeat what happened recently, which is one of the things the anti-'s scream about the most, wasting money. It's the biggest crime in the world, till there is a vote that took the funding, money was thrown away, but that was ok because it went back to the way they like. No, nobody is going to give you every single detail on increased travel arrangments, or time on buses or athletic facilities because you have never been able to decide on what you're doing with the schools, forget trying to figure out all the secondary expenses. You can't get to that point when you can't past the first few steps on the journey and people LOVE to throw that out and act like that is criminal.
Now the new thing is people don't mind paying a bit more taxes to keep the schools open, if that money is put into the schools. I don't know if you have really paid attention, the schools are funded at what, 1.5X times what they should be? I know that everybody wants to pretend that is due to some wild spending binges at the central office or something, and there is no doubt that there has been wasted money there, and some of that due to running off anybody that dares mention the 'C' word, but does the simple enough concept that the county puts more into the schools than required because it requires more to run more buildings than the suggested level? Simple enough logic here. You need $2000 a month to live on, you earn $1600 a month, then you ask your job to just give you more money because you want it and they do. That's great if they do, you got the extra money you need to live on but you still do not have a single dollar to put up or use on any unexpected costs. You might can tighten a bit and do some minor things, but if something major happens, you're kind of screwed. That's basically what is going on here. It strikes me odd that everybody talks about Wise County spends more on education than anybody else, but for some reason, instead of thinking well thats because we're keeping 6 schools, 6 sets of teachers, administrators, etc going, and not just some devious master plan where the central office is putting money in their Swiss bank accounts. The others don't pay that much, because they are not trying to pay for their corvette on a food city cashier salary. It's not that the school system just decided to tank on repairing buildings for years and years and years, to think that is completely unfair and anybody who can truthfully suggest that, I feel sorry for. It's the old robbing Peter to pay Paul. Was there mistakes and bad uses of some money over time? Absolutely. Nobody is stupid enough to think that no entity is perfect. However, back to simple logic, if it takes 100% of 99% of your money to operate and live, where do you get the money for repairs? Sure on a small scale, its easier to make due. On your home level, you can cut down on food, maybe cut your cable off a bit, stop making excess trips, avoid Wally world a few times, etc, but when you are talking in millions of dollars, its a bit harder. It would be one thing if everybody could get along and say oh, ok let's so A, then B, then C, then D, then E, then F, but as we've seen, that is impossible, because you have people coming up saying they would never be in favor or such and such getting anything or being done for this other place, etc. Too much ego and too many people who look for grand conspiracy in everything. And that's probably not true, so I'll correct myself. A few people who are looking for conspiracy in everything and they tend to be the loudest ones, who scream about the first sideways glance they see and make people view everything as crooked. Wait, the other side has agendas. You want to try and sit and tell me that people on both sides, either sides, all sides, neither side or whatever don't have agendas?? You may say that someones agenda is 'whats best for the children', but you probably only think that as long as there opinion is the same as you, if someone thinks opposite, the same person 'has an agenda'. It's perception.
I'm an actual numbers person, and as much as it pains me, that's what I have to go by. Same idea over the hill. Would I love to see there be a Clintwood high school for years and years to come? Absolutely I would, but as a numbers person, I realize with our enrollments, and cost, its doubtful. Now could there be? Sure they could keep it but they can't logically afford 3 schools, so they are going to have to do something, and the least painful and most fair way to all is to close all and create a new entity. I always wanted two over here, just for growth but I understand the reasons and the numbers don't make sense for two. My personal feelings are 2 would be better, but logically and numbers-wise I understand why 1 is the best or most economically feasible solution. Same idea, it would be great to keep all the schools in all the communities. They are all part of a history, but our area does not have the population to justify that many schools.
I do agree with beast the economy will improve, it is improving but that's not going to do much with the biggest issues here, declining enrollments, poor job markets, an aging population. We all lived on coal but no matter what the government did, there is not the jobs in coal, no matter what. We're a lot like the old west in the Gold rush. Towns sprung up, thrived, when the economy left, so did the majority of the people. There are some areas that lived, but there are countless little pockets left where a few people live and nothing is left.
And one other thing, its always said that a building doesn't improve the education. Ok fair enough. It doesn't in of itself, but you want to sit there and tell me that if you are trying to learn something, when you was studying back in good old days, you wasn't able to do better when you could at least not be sitting there freezing, burning up or could hear because there was 3 fans going trying to cool a room down. I'm sorry, no a building will not magically fix an education, just like a new bed mattress might not make you sleep better, but a bad one will certainly make it harder to sleep and if anybody denies that, well then you're lucky or crazy or both
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