The news today is reminding me of several small-minded comments I’ve heard through the years. Risking the appearance of accelerated arrogance, here we go again.
A bill sponsored by Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson) that would have saved the state approximately $11 million annually (accounting methods unknown) is been committeed. The local press sees this as grounds to worry. The bill, S475, would permit state funds to go to no more than one school administration unit per county.
That would mean schools in Buncombe County would have to merge with Asheville City Schools. The obvious question is, “What’s not to like about consolidation and elimination of administrative positions?” The answer, mumbled by old press hands about a decade ago when the question arose, was that people didn’t want to racially integrate the systems. It was not that KKK folks out in the county were afraid so much as that the “inner city” folks thought there was something special about their diverse student population.
It was confusing until the Citizen-Times poured some light on it. They noted the city would lose federal funding it receives for its impoverished student base, which would be diluted to an unentitlable percentage if combined with county wealth. Furthermore, the city schools would lose $2.1 million in sales tax redistributions from the state.
Gut instinct says the schools would realize economies of scale from consolidation that are not discussed in the article, and the state would save money.
