The face of education is changing

It would be nice if we had a crystal ball and could see into the future of education.

What will it be like?

Will education in the future be like it is today, or will there be  master teachers who will have classes in the hundreds of thousands who will teach over the internet? 

Will there be as many teachers.  Will we be able to afford them?

Will we need as many school plants, or will our homes become classrooms? 

These are all questions which come up when analyzing the decision before the Merced Union High School Board.

As voters we have bonded ourselves to provide much needed improvements in the school system. We set down projects but the money was not sufficient to fund all the projects. 

Some people have asked that the Bellevue School project be held back because the housing growth has not materialized in that area the way it was projected when the bond was passed. 

Proponents for building the new school have pointed to the amount of money which has already been spent on planning, the time that has been spent and the $35 million in matching funds to be provided by the state, as reasons for going ahead with the project. 

Opponents say the need is not there, growth has slowed to a trickle and that there are other projects which should be moved up on the priority list. (all of which were approved at the time the bond was passed).

They say that additional classrooms could be built at the other school sites to accommodate the present growth and it would save the need of hiring an entire administrative team to run a new school. (Estimates of up to $1.4 million a year have been given for administering a new school plant).

There are other issues such as busing students to the new school site. 

We have been told that the present school sites are now housing 1,200 more students then they were built to sustain. 

This leaves us in a quandary. Should we take the state money and run? Or should we consider the health of the state, the city and the county? 

All three are  broke and are having to make major cuts in personnel to meet this year’s budget. The state is in the worst financial shape, taking money from cities and counties to make up for it’s $26 billion shortfall. 

We have heard some people say, “If we don’t take the $35 million someone else will.” Is this really sound reasoning?

We have also heard that the bid to build the new school was exceptionally low and that we can not afford to turn it down. 

On the other hand, the economy has continued to decline and if anything, there may  be better bidders still waiting. 

We want to support the board of directors because they are good people who have worked in earnest to improve our schools, however decisions made in the past my not be the best for today and tomorrow. 

The face of education is changing.