The Wheels of Government Turn Too Slowly - for Kids

Did you ever notice how the wheels of government turn slowly? If anyone in business took as long to make a decision as our public officials do, the business would fail miserably.

At least in education, which is notoriously slow to make improvements, there is an awareness that the clients – the children – need to be served expeditiously. After all, a child is only in Kindergarten, for example, for one year, and a high school senior will be leaving the system shortly so, if there is going to be a change in program or instructional method at any grade level, it better happen sooner rather than later so the client doesn’t miss the boat.

Yet here we are, diddling around, while Rome burns.

What does it take to wake up the communities to the fact that regionalization could improve the education of our children by reducing fixed expenses and improving programs?

Take the high schools as a case in point. Three separate buildings? All in need of very expensive upgrading and renovations? And what about energy efficiency? Do we really need three separate buildings?

Consider this: In my last year as a teacher at Middletown High School, the enrollment was 1250 students; now it hovers around 650. Rogers High School had a similar enrollment at the time; now the enrollment is lower than Middletown’s. Does it still make sense to maintain two separate complex facilities?

Consider this: Advanced Placement courses often do not run (or, if they do, it is at the extravagant cost of 20% of a teacher’s time) because of the low enrollment. ( It’s hard to justify a class of two or four students.) What if there were twice as many because of a combined enrollment? Or three times as many? How many additional AP courses could be available for students?

What if the enrollment were 2,000? Could a single school provide more opportunities? Of course, it could!

I have been an administrator in 2 districts with very large high school enrollments. They offered 4 foreign languages. They had agreements with community colleges that enabled students to take high level technical courses at their high schools and transfer them as advanced credits to the community colleges. The variety of academic programs was amazing, not to mention the abundance of extracurricular and athletic opportunities. Why? Because of the critical mass. There were enough students to support the programs in a centralized location.

But those with the ability to take action are sitting on their hands while our children’s Kindergarten or senior years go by forever.

Regionalization would not be easy. There would be lots of issues to resolve. However, the communities need to honorably and honestly explore the possibilities now. They need to take a stand publicly and make a decision about what is best for the upcoming Kindergartners or the incoming high schoolers on the island, bearing in mind that doing nothing is still a decision for which there are consequences. What if it were your child?