Education in Rural Southern United States

Southern bureaucrats and politicians would like everyone to believe that our states are becoming national leaders in sending our public high school graduates on to higher education. State and local school board officials are supposedly working to cut the drop-out rate by identifying at-risk students. Rural school boards pat themselves on the back for all the great work they're doing. They spend tax payer money to further their education on how to educate our children. Then they take full credit for our children's accomplishments.

It makes sense that the 'at-risk' students be targeted by school officials for interventions. But are these interventions really taking place? Are the students they 'saved' going on to college or just finishing high school? Just where are these kids anyway? We hear about the money spent, the conferences attended and all the stats showing improvement but we never see the 'real' people who've benefited. In fact we only hear about the continuing needs of the school systems and how much money is needed to change things.

Ever notice how the public schools always need more money and never need the same as last year or less? You'd think that after all the education and travel some school boards do under the premise of learning new ways to keep kids in school and promote higher education we'd see some obvious results. Usually the only results we see are the statistics quoted by the same folks who, in the next breath, ask for even more money.

The drop-out rates don't seem to be getting better, especially if we pay attention to the news coming from our school boards. It's not the statistics we need to be monitoring; it's the money they're asking for. If the drop-out rates were actually getting better each year, would they have to beg for more money to combat it? That's always at the top of the list, yet we never see any real results.

If there are good results shouldn't there be celebration? Shouldn't the public be shown our tax dollars are really helping? We read article after article about school boards and budgetary needs, but where are the articles about the graduation rate increase or university acceptance rates for a particular school? I want to see success stories with specifics.

It's time the public starts demanding real answers and not just accepting statistics thrown at them. Exactly how many children benefit from all the tax dollars spent on what appear to be frivolous trips and conferences? How can children be without books and materials when school boards everywhere vote themselves raises? Until real parents step up and demand real answers, nothing will change.