Public to Business Leaders: Right Issue, Wrong Focus

I didn't make it to last night's Public Square on education hosted by the Times-Dispatch, but neither did any of the 26 key business leaders who penned a letter recently calling for an elected school board. The Mayor also missed the event.

The 165 people who attended seemed to understand the issue -- and the city's priorities -- better than our elected officials or local business leaders. Maybe we should let the residents of Richmond run the city -- they seem to get it. Two snippets:

• Others, including Art Burton, called for new schools -- "make them build us our schools," he said, saying he was disappointed the city would finance a new downtown performing-arts center but not new schools.

• The problems that audience members mentioned had more to do with social issues than with the schools themselves. "Nobody seems to know who the children are and what they need," said
  Mabel Wells, who complained that many parents don't prepare their
  children for school.

Comments

[Jonah Holland]

John, thanks for covering this. I am FLOORED that none of the 26 business leaders showed up for the forum, but somehow not surprised. For my opinion (and rant) on the matter check out www.nearwestendnews.net

[HowardP]

Once you accept the idea that the biggest challenge facing the school system is the impoverished home environments of the majority of the children, you enter a reality that most people will not want to look at. This is because the solution is not one that can be provided by new buildings, increased teacher salaries, better school boards, or anything else money or votes can buy. And it cannot be solved by yelling at the government, local, state, or national. It can only be solved by the widespread involvement of everyday citizens in the lives of the families and children involved, and the challenges involved in creating those relationships are immense. Every one out there yelling about the problem, upon recognizing what the solution requires, ought to also be asking themselves whether or not they are genuinely interested in having relations with these people they pretend to care so much about. Because without those relationships, the health of the city will continue to erode no matter how pretty the schools. And even with such relationships, only a community-wide "project of a generation" is going to add up to enough to make the necessary difference. It will either be an all-hands-on-deck effort or the ship I'll call the Richmond Public School System will sink as a consequence of the deteriorating condition of the children being sent on board.

[Scott Burger]

I disagree with HowardP. I think new and fully renovated school buildings, developed with 'green building' techniques, ADA accessability, and fully wired (or wireless) capabilities could make a huge difference in the outlook for RPS. Its reprehensible that the City's leadership continues to put ritzy downtown development above the real needs of Richmond's future citizens.