Fayetteville Taxpayers, We Feel Your Pain

Why not tear down a perfectly sound school building? The school board in Fayetteville, Arkansas thinks it a great idea. Some of them say, "the building is inadequate for developing a 21st-century curriculum in which teachers are more like facilitators in the classroom. The 21st century curriculum can't be done in the building we have." Really? And why would that be?

Here's some plain talk from a fed-up taxpayer who believes the school board simply wants to keep up with the Joneses (a newly-built nearby high school):

"Yes, Fayetteville High School is half a century old. Yes, its cafeteria and auditorium are too small. But there are smarter and less costly ways of addressing those problems than temporarily housing students elsewhere and spending tens of millions. How about if we just build a new cafeteria and auditorium? The recently completed appraisal of the facility said that it was in “excellent condition,” so why do we have to tear it all down and build a shinier new one?

"And how about if we take some of the money that we were willing to spend on a shiny new building and invest it intelligently in recruiting, retaining, and motivating the best teachers?

"As a separate matter, someone needs to look into why exactly school buildings cost so much. The average cost [of housing construction] is $55 compared to $93 at [a nearby community's new high school] and who knows what at the potential new Fayetteville High School. My guess is that school construction firms have effective lobbies that insert all sorts of gold-plating and burdensome requirements into school building codes. Doing so limits possible bidders who could meet all of those requirements while it drives up the construction profit. And I imagine that most of those requirements have nothing to do with educational necessity or realistic student health and safety."

Did someone say "earthquake"?

We all know what a wealthy state Arkansas is. Not.