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Aug. 23, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: Will more dollars for our public schools produce better students? That’s the old “bucks for brains” question, one always answered by educators in the affirmative. They are always in the money chase. None of this is mentioned in your report of last week, “Officials Urge Action On JLARC Study.”
Don’t you think 140 politicians, Virginia’s General Assembly, would love to beat the other 49 states in the school spending war? Oh, if learning were so easy. It seems that the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission believes so. If more bucks produced more brains I suggest we double or triple all education budgets and start with teachers pay.
Sorry, life is complicated. We know that paying for a kid to have better learning is not as easy as building a bridge. With each buck spent on a bridge we know the results. With kids, who knows? Compare per-student spending in our progressive urban areas with results in rural Rockbridge. There’s a reverse relationship. Local taxpayers have noticed.
Maybe that’s one reason that in this great republic K-12 public education is primarily the responsibility of local government, with the states helping to pay the bills. Americans have decided that those closest to the schools should decide how much we spend on schools. Parents tend to be close to their kids.
In Virginia we try for a 50/50 local/state partnership. It has worked well for the city of Lexington and Rockbridge County. However, in order for low taxbase city of Buena Vista to have its own school system — which its citizens endorse — the state steps up its share to roughly 70%.
Any reader with a better idea? Or should our area have a more efficient consolidated school district, quite common in most states? But a couple of things are lost: participation and pride. Or, as always, you can take the ultimate cop-out: Where you stand depends on where you sit. DAVID REYNOLDS Rockbridge County
