Class I schools are solution, not problem

Dear Editor,

Again this year, Legislators are proposing to eliminate small school districts and close the smallest of schools.

Although education faces many problems, small Class I schools are not one of them. Instead, they are a great asset to our state and should not be dismantled further.

Closing small schools or reducing their independence does nothing to help the overall problem of education; which is, in spite of higher budgets in nearly every school, in too many cases students are not better educated.

Too often, teachers have less time to teach and students have less attention for learning. All the while, costs go up; creating heartburn for parents, taxpayers, teachers and administrators.

Schools deal with the direct effects of society's biggest problems: stressed and broken homes give schools increased responsibilities, soaring health care costs lead a parade of spiraling expenses.

It will take much more than closing small schools to fix those problems.

Fixing the problems will require new ideas and innovative, flexible places to apply them. Class I small schools allow people to educate together, to share ideas, to work out new techniques.

As noted educator Deborah Meier has said, smallness is essential to a school that instills the principles of democracy.

Meier has successfully educated in the toughest urban neighborhoods in the nation. While Nebraska's situation is less put upon, education is no less important.

Whereas in a large school authority and accountability are layered, small schools offer parents and teachers a place to directly address educational reality.

Ninety percent of the state's Class I districts spend less money per pupil than larger schools, and it is common for more people per student to be involved, many as volunteers.

The forced closing of small schools only transfers the problems of education to others while eliminating a good system already in place.

If and when small schools become inefficient, members of the district can close them, and do. People have closed nearly 950 school districts during the last 30 years. There are fewer school districts in Nebraska now than at any time since the Civil War.

Those that remain often cooperate and work together. In Dawson County, for instance, 10 Class I schools share an administrator and many educational projects for more than 250 students.

Instead of talking about fewer schools, Nebraskans would be wiser to be talking about creating more, because small schools offer more residents the privileged opportunity to educate. It is a selling point for the state.

Yet, nearly every year the Legislature proposes to close small schools, and then hundreds of people protest --parents, business men and women, farmers and ranchers, most of them educated in Nebraska's top-rated school system, write, make phone calls and travel to Lincoln to object to the Education Committee.

This year, 200 drove to Lincoln on a workday. Another 1,000 turned out in the middle of the day at field hearings in Mullen, Broken Bow and Wahoo.

They point out that closing Class I schools will save no significant money because education costs money, regardless of where, and costs continue to rise.

Good government allows people the freedom to address and solve problems. It should not interfere with a community that operates a good school any more than it should interfere with individuals who live responsibly.

Maybe lawmakers are too overworked to hear that message.

Maybe they are too busy, too far away from the small schools to see their merits.

Maybe the only majority vote they can muster is for laws that affect the minority.

Maybe they have forgotten that small units of government, especially school districts, afford people the opportunity to govern themselves.

Maybe they have forgotten that it is people who solve problems, not laws.

And maybe they don't realize that people are more capable than ever of educating, thanks to immediate, electronic access to information and convenient communication systems.

It is a time for individuals to be more empowered, more encouraged, more involved in education, not less.

Class I schools, a fundamental part of Nebraska's educational system for more than a century, are not a problem in education; they are a solution.

The officers of the

Dawson County

Cooperative of rural schools.

Paul Rieker, president Tammy Paulsen,

vice president

Deb Rittgarn,

secretary

Tammy Knauss,

treasurer