Students Suffer When Schools Lack Funds

Schools across the state have had to look for ways to tighten their belts due to the higher cost of energy. Prices across the board rose in the past year and schools depend in many ways upon fuel to function properly.

Preston County limited each sport to a single bus trip. Parents must figure out how to get their children to the games themselves. This means car trips to places such as Lewis County and Elkins for families that cannot afford to fill their own gas tanks. In Grant County, athletic costs have risen to the point that Petersburg High School's athletic department can no longer share funds with the band. Away game and competition performances could be in jeopardy.

Right now the costs have hit athletics first. Most consider this a "luxury" item anyway, but few parts of modern schools teach real life lessons about hard work and sacrifice in quite the same way as extracurricular activities. Sports, band, chorus, and other activities teach about the real world and are sometimes a better learning experience than the classroom. Field trips, already limited, could be phased out across the state. Too many children never get the chance to travel and learn first hand about other places except from these trips.

First the school system must halt all consolidation. Bigger schools with bigger fuel bills that require more bus runs to supply them are no longer something our state can afford. Put money into maintaining the small schools where they still exist. Also administrative cuts must be made where possible. Students have taken enough hits. Finally, salary increases ought to be looked at in terms of how they will affect the scarcity of current resources. If they cannot be afforded, then they should be deferred. Any educational retreats ought to be cancelled and money put into student needs and activities.

Students seem to take a backseat in most budgetary decisions. It is time to put them first when making budget decisions.

The Real Villain of Childhood Obesity

The media and many politicians often like to discuss childhood obesity. To them, this issue looms as one of the most horrible social problems of our time. Kids carrying extra weight will certainly cause the decline of Western Civilization as we know it. Most media figures and trial lawyers have a ready villain, the free market system that allows such evil places as McDonalds and such horrible items as video games to be marketed to children.

Video games are in their third decade of use. Ever since Pong and Pac Man, experts have told us that children spend too much time playing these games. Only now have diabetes rates confirmed their fears. Something must have happened between Asteroids and World of Warcraft to account for this. McDonalds served these kids' grandparents so do not blame them either.

The big changes have come in the public school system. Rural children are supposedly at highest risk for obesity, experts love to blame ignorance. So many rural counties consolidated their school systems, closing small community schools in favor of mega facilities at central locations. This means that children in a place like Preston County must ride the bus for well over an hour. Schools in an effort to cram as much knowledge into children's heads as possible whittled recess to a short number of minutes and in many cases do not run year round physical education. Some genius somewhere, probably in California, decided that elementary school children need mountains of homework to reinforce what they learned all day in school.

So the child gets up at the crack of dawn, rides a bus for over an hour, gets to school, sits there almost all day with little activity, rides home, has endless amounts of homework (while he or she does all this work they probably are snacking) and then hopefully has a short period of time to play before sundown. If the child takes the initiative and plays a sport, then there are times the homework simply does not get done and their grades fall. The decreasing numbers of children playing sports in some areas suggests that school has grown overwhelming in its time demands off campus.

I need not remind you of who has held the school system in their stranglehold for decades. Common sense went out the door long ago. Don't blame the students and do not always blame the teachers or administrators. Those up high that make decisions for all have pushed education in some very negative directions.

Teachers

I have held this post for a while, but recently read an article about how Preston County teachers are concerned about low wages compared to their counterparts in neighboring states. The solution from the Education department is always pay more, spend more, vote for our $15 million levy. Unfortunately we are a low income state that needs a better solution. Our teachers are not underpaid because they are undervalued, they work in a low income, low cost of living state. If your customers can't afford to pay for your product, it's time to adjust the product. When you lack the money you think you need, it is time to adjust your strategy. Is more money the solution to this problem? I would be tempted to entertain that notion if someone could tell me a) how much is being spent on education today and b) how much more to achieve the goals set forth.

The National Education Association reports that WV teachers have an average salary of $40,531 which is $10,000 less than the national average. What does the statistic leave off? A little math. This isn't meant to be a criticism of what teachers get paid or the status of our schools, just to ask the question, how much more is needed? After all, levies are constantly being proposed and denied, surely there is a solution out there.

The average WV primary earner brings in around $36,000 per year. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/medincearnersandstate.html I like this listing by number of earners in the family because it better reflects what the average family is living with. I have heard numbers as low as $20K for the average WV income. As you become a two and three earner family the statistics get a little skewed by part time workers, kids living at home and working, etc.

Most people are more familiar with what they are paid per hour. I ran these numbers past a friend who teaches and they already knew this to be true. The school year runs 180 days, most people with 2 weeks of vacation work 250 days. The school day runs about 8-3, with a lunch and at least one planning period, let's call that 6 hours per day. That comes to 180days x 6 hours = 1080 hours per year. To be overly fair, let's add in some bonus hours for in service and general planning, what the heck, lets add 120 hours of "extra" work time. That gives a work year of 1200 hours. Now, $40, 531/1200 = $33.63 per hour. That's 7x the current minimum wage. This doesn't include benefits and pension, and assumes no sick days or snow days that don't get made up for. The national average is over $50,000 per year which means the national hourly rate for teachers is $41.66 per hour. Compared to a non-teacher counterpart in 52 week per year work force with the same annual salary we see that they work 9-5 or 7 hours per day, 50 weeks per year (allowing 2 weeks for vacation) and thus make $40.531/1750 hours = $23.16/ hour. The average WV earner making $36K brings in about $20.51 per hour of work. Roughly $13 per hour less than our teachers.

Think a little about these numbers the next time you see a pending strike from teachers or hear complaints about how underpaid our teachers are. Then try to put this math to the salaries of college professors...just for fun. You might discover the major reason that the cost of higher education is skyrocketing.

Compared to the nation our teachers are underpaid. But isn't that true of everyone in WV? Compared to their fellow WVs they are some of the highest earners in the state. Most of us make less than our counterparts in the rest of the country.

Preston County Republicans Well Organized

Tuesday night I was invited to attend the Preston County executive committee meeting. It was one of the largest Republican meetings I have attended, save for a West Virginia State Republican meeting.

The first thing I noticed was these were unified Republicans. They were discussing their trip to Charleston on the 5th. While many people were representing different Presidential Candidates, the discussion was at the task at hand. The knew what needed to be done and the politics of politics were not on the agenda.

The second thing I noticed was the full slate of candidates they had organized for the ballot. There were 4 candidates for sheriff alone. It has been my experience than when several people are running for the same position, there is usually a certain amount uneasiness among those running. I could feel not tension in the air, doesn't mean it wasn't there, but it was not noticeable.

After discussion on the upcoming convention the topic of discussion turned to getting Republican candidates known and available to the public. A very good flow of ideas was given on how to do this. Everything from meet and greets to debates.

The Preston Republican's were still not done. They then turned there attention to voter registration. I'm not going to delve into the details, because some of them the other side may not have thought of, but they have a plan.

It is easy to see why Preston County has a growing Republican population. The executive committee is well organized, it is active, it takes the politics of politics out of the equation, and most importantly is listens to its voters for their ideas and needs. Good job.

Taylor County Commission fighting TrAIL 500 kV line

In a meeting last Tuesday, the Taylor County Commission voted 3-0 to oppose the "Grafton Area Route", a proposed alternative route for the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line project -- a 500kV electric transmission line which will run from southwestern Pennsylvania to northern Virginia.

The "Grafton Area Route" proposal came about after local residents in Monongalia and Preston counties strenuously opposed the original proposed route of the line, which would cut through the Halleck and Gladesville areas of Mon and Preston County, respectively. The WV Public Service Commission's Consumer Advocate Division ordered an alternative route study, and the Grafton Area Route is the result of that study.

The Grafton Area Route would, generally, follow the route of the existing Ft. Martin-Pruntytown line. It would then cut through the Wickwire area of Taylor County, before meeting up with the Pruntytown-Mt. Storm line; the right of way for the Grafton Area Route would more or less parallel the existing line.

The Grafton Area Route, in every measurable way according to the study, will have a greater negative impact upon people and the environment than the original proposed route. For example, the Grafton Area Route may require the removal of at least one residence, while the original route does not threaten any structures. In addition, the Grafton Area Route will place the lines within 250 feet of nearly 100 residences, while the original route will similarly affect less than 50. Add to that the additional economic and environmental costs, and the Grafton Area Route appears to be an inferior choice to the original proposed route.