To the editor:

Bricks and mortar and shiny new sports facilities do not educate children, teachers and parents do. Some would have you believe that “if you simply build it, things will turnaround”! This is far from the truth. While we have some exceptional teachers in the VWSD and many supportive parents, we obviously have much room for improvement. The administrators want you to believe that things are getting better and we are headed in the right direction; maybe, but there is little evidence of that at the present time. The VWSD is STILL rated a D; no matter how you spin that it is still a D!

There are 149 schools districts in Mississippi, 107 have better rating than VWSD (A,B,and Cs). Oh they must have more money you say? No sadly that isn’t true either, of the 60 school districts rated A or B, 54 spend less money per student than the VWSD. The VWSD ranks 51st in the highest cost per student, meaning 98 school districts spend less per student yet we rank in the bottom quartile in performance and our dropout rate is in the highest quartile. The VWSD has an $83M budget this next school year and our millage rate is in the highest quartile in the state; money is not the issue people!

Now the VWSD wants us to approve an $83M bond as part of a $131M project to improve facilities and somehow imply that this will magically improve education; HOW? If I thought spending $131M on top of our $83M budget would somehow magically improve our school ratings to just a B, I would gladly give the additional tax base to do so (even though we are already in the highest school tax range in the state). One of our best schools in terms of ratings happens to be one of our oldest schools; Bowmar Elementary school. Again, bricks and mortar don’t educate children; parents and teachers do. Facilities don’t drive performance; people do. We must maintain our assets and if somehow we haven’t done that with one of the highest school budgets in the state we need to appropriate money to do so now but that doesn’t mean brand new schools and facilities and doesn’t mean we have to spend $131M now. Prioritize the list and work your way through that and once performance improves and we are reaping the benefits then let’s talk about new schools and facilities.

Everyone likes sports analogies; so here is one to think about. A football team has a record over the last 3 years of 2-10, 1-11, and last year 2-10. Their average attendance over those 3 years are 20,000 per game. The current football coach comes to the administration with a plan to build a brand new stadium that seats 90,000 and wants to raise ticket prices by 10% and tells them, we improved over last year and if we do this we will have a winning season and people will fill the new stadium! Same coaches, same strategy, nothing new! You buying it? Me either; bricks and mortar don’t educate children, teachers and parents do! Maintain your assets, adequately pay your good teachers (and get rid of the bad ones) and get parents engaged, then education will improve!

Steve Saunders

Vicksburg