THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701250117
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: John Pruitt
LENGTH: 66 lines
The next time a city councilman or anyone else huffs that there's more to education than fancy buildings, I may just throw up.
Who, pray tell, do they think holds such a cockamamie idea that if we erect ultra-costly buildings the schoolchildren who occupy them somehow will be educated, instruction aside?
Give the people lobbying for our children some credit. They've got a lot more sense than to think a building alone makes a learning center.
They know it takes much more, particularly teachers who motivate students to do their best whether they're in an isolated portable classroom or in the carpeted confines of a new school.
They've got sense enough, too, though, to know that environment makes a difference; it's unrealistic to expect students housed in yesterday's schools to be prepared to take their place in tomorrow's world.
Yet the line about schools' being more than buildings keeps getting hurled at anyone bold enough to say that Suffolk has to get on with an aggressive building program.
Acting as if they're foolish even to ask for such facilities degrades these advocates of our children, and they deserve better.
The Suffolk School Board's request for nearly $128 million over the next five years for new and renovated schools is a lot to ask, and I don't know how we'd ever afford it.
At the same time, how do we not meet the needs of our children?
At some point - and, based on the history of past City Councils, I predict later and at more cost rather than sooner - Suffolk has to confront this need.
We don't have enough schools, in any shape; and many that we do have are pitiful excuses for centers of learning in 1997.
Vice Mayor Charles F. Brown can point the finger of ``poor planning'' at school officials all he wishes, but more fingers point right back at him as a member of a city council that just keeps approving housing that will bring more children needing more classrooms.
The council, in its zeal to grant the wishes of developers, apparently has overlooked that residential growth means more schools, police and fire protection and other costly city services. Whatever happened to Suffolk's determination not to be like Chesapeake and have to play catchup at a breakneck pace?
The School Board didn't get in this mess all by itself. There's been plenty of poor planning to take in just about every city agency.
Besides, the School Board didn't just compile a bureaucrats' wish list of extravagant notions. Its plan evolved from citizens who spent months studying the schools' needs, citizens who realize they'll be footing the bill for whatever is done.
That's why it's so cutting when Mr. Brown and others utter that line about education being more than buildings.
What the citizens had in mind was how best to enhance learning, to put Suffolk schools on par with the schools of neighboring cities. They can only be praised for that, whether or not the price tag is high.
The price may be politically unappealing, but is it out line? Do council members really know that their constituents would not say ``find a way'' rather than treat the school board as if it were from Mars for even asking? What priority do council members think most citizens place on education?
Residents who believe it's important shouldn't be timid about saying so. Despite its record of putting off controversial topics, the council can't just do nothing about building and renovating schools.
Alternatives to cutting cost certainly should be explored. But Suffolk residents - not politicians - should determine if we can afford a cut-rate approach to education. I think not.