It would be so interesting to put together a meeting of people from all over the state: residents from rural, urban, suburban areas, transportation and land use planners, economic development, regional gov’t, local electeds & candidates, teachers and superintendents, & others to really focus on the long-term impacts of closing schools. Not just on kids*, but to the local economy, roads, community cohesion (as you write), what will happen to empty massive rural campuses or historic urban buildings, I could go on and on. Will small towns empty out chasing a good education for their kids? Will urban cores have worse crime with zero possibility of coming back to life?
I don’t think the clowns in Jeff City are able to get past their own personal short-term benefits ($), but perhaps helping voters understand that it isn’t just underfunded schools, but how entire neighborhoods are communities will change, and not for the better.
*but absolutely including the impacts to kids who have their educational opportunities almost completely ruined, and how it will change society. TBH I’m thinking of urban kids turning to crime and rural kids having nothing to do and the astonishing ignorance that will result. What will it mean to have pockets of wealth where families will have access to quality education, while the rest of the state wallows in poverty and ignorance? Gah - it’s so complicated and ultimately so cruel.
It would be so interesting to put together a meeting of people from all over the state: residents from rural, urban, suburban areas, transportation and land use planners, economic development, regional gov’t, local electeds & candidates, teachers and superintendents, & others to really focus on the long-term impacts of closing schools. Not just on kids*, but to the local economy, roads, community cohesion (as you write), what will happen to empty massive rural campuses or historic urban buildings, I could go on and on. Will small towns empty out chasing a good education for their kids? Will urban cores have worse crime with zero possibility of coming back to life?
I don’t think the clowns in Jeff City are able to get past their own personal short-term benefits ($), but perhaps helping voters understand that it isn’t just underfunded schools, but how entire neighborhoods are communities will change, and not for the better.
*but absolutely including the impacts to kids who have their educational opportunities almost completely ruined, and how it will change society. TBH I’m thinking of urban kids turning to crime and rural kids having nothing to do and the astonishing ignorance that will result. What will it mean to have pockets of wealth where families will have access to quality education, while the rest of the state wallows in poverty and ignorance? Gah - it’s so complicated and ultimately so cruel.