ED-WATCH: FAYETTE CONSOLIDATION HOOKED TO $49 MILLION BOND

(10/19/2009)

The proposal to consolidate four of Fayette County's six high schools is hooked to a $49 million bond vote this weekend. The consolidation calls for the closure of Collins, Fayetteville, Meadow Bridge and Mount Hope high schools. The Fayette school board recently voted 3-2, passing a resolution in support of a bond proposal, with members Steve Bush and Dave Arritt voting against it. Former board superintendent Matt Edwards, who held the position 14 years, sticks with the body of research that overwhelmingly affirms the superiority of small community schools. "Decades of research show that student achievement in small schools is at least equal, and in most cases superior to achievements in larger schools," said Edwards. Edwards restates another body of research that de-bunks that larger school systems are cheaper to operate. Following decades of wholesale consolidation of West Virginia schools to save money and improve curriculum, the evidence is not there. During a time when government wants education globalized, community education maintains some semblance of democratic fiber and community control, not the least being the lack of behavioral problems seen in large schools. Edwards said trying to reverse the trend is a worthy goal, while admitting the trend has been difficult to challenge. Edwards asks Fayette County citizens, "Will we have to travel that difficult road of reversal from large to small schools in the future?"

Hur Herald ®from Sunny Cal The information on these pages, to the extent the law allows, remains the exclusive property of Bob Weaver and Dianne Weaver The Hur Herald. All information may be freely used but must not be sold or used in any type of commercial endeavor, or used on any web site without the express permission of the owners ©Bob and Dianne Weaver, The Hur Herald, 1999, 2000, 2001