BCT Editorial – 3/16/08

This page was last updated on March 17, 2008.

Death spiral; Editorial; Beaver County Times; March 16, 2008.

This editorial subtitle is “Declining enrollments in our schools is a trend that’s not going to be reversed.”

The Times has published several editorials on this topic over the last few years though none has addressed the root cause of declining enrollment. Instead, the editorials focus on the Times’ preferred means for treating the symptom, school district consolidation.

Stating the obvious, declining enrollment is the result of declining population, especially when it comes to the young adult segment of the population. The question is, “why?”

Economic and political decisions made by government have repercussions. From an economic and political perspective, Pennsylvania is a left-leaning state. Don’t let Republican representation in PA exists fool you. As a group (There must be some exceptions, right?), elected Republicans in PA tend to lean more toward “Democrat lite” than they do toward conservative principles. For more details, please read “Not your father’s Republicans.” There are reasons why jobs are migrating south, and it’s not the weather. Though there are exceptions, southern states tend to be right-to-work states and tend to have lower taxes.

Of course, our elected and unelected government officials don’t get there by themselves. We the voters put them in place either directly or indirectly.

I have one last comment. Times editorials on this topic almost invariably assert something like school districts need to consolidate so they can provide academic offerings beyond the basics. Assuming Center High during the 1960s (when I attended CHS) provided what would today be considered “basic” offerings or perhaps even less, I disagree. The K-12 education problems we face today aren’t the result of an insufficient number of academic offerings. Our problem is that too many of today’s students aren’t proficient in the basics. I attended Penn State along side students from school districts that provided more academic offerings than CHS. Without intending to brag, I left most of these folks in the dust. My point is this. It’s not how many so-called advanced academic offerings a school provides. It’s how well the school teaches – and the students learn – the courses offered.