Franklin County schools still face painful cuts despite a little more money from supervisors.

Public pressure prompted Franklin County supervisors on Tuesday to kick in $300,000 more in support of public schools. The small gesture came with big strings: Supervisors would like the school board to restore middle school sports and send bright freshmen to the governor’s school, and they’d like for people to stop blaming them.

Supervisors are not callous villains. No. But they aren’t heroes of public school education, either. Nor when they squander children’s potential are they very good stewards of the county’s resources.

Continue reading this editorial.

Leaders could have used a quilt to inspire a conversation on race relations.

Martinsville City Council has decided to carry on as if the whole patchwork quilt controversy never flared.

Too bad. A group of fine students will lose an opportunity to broaden their minds by seeing their world through different eyes. And, at best, the city now will slip into polite silence between black and white on matters of race.

Continue reading this editorial.

Wikimedia Commons

Franklin County’s leaders are doing real damage to public education. They can, though, keep it from being lasting.

Tonight, barring a change of heart by miserly supervisors, the Franklin County School Board will cut $1.5 million from an already austere budget. To reach that sum, the board may need to reduce its program for gifted students, eliminate resource teachers for struggling students, pull out of the Roanoke Valley Governor’s School, eliminate middle school athletics and charge students to play sports or march with the band. And the list goes on.

The days of 15 to 20 pupils to a class already were history in Franklin County, as most teachers now have 30 to a class, thanks to years of belt-tightening. Franklin County’s schools, once the pride of the community, are already on the slippery trajectory that, if not corrected, will continue past the point of mediocrity and plummet into the troubled abyss.

Continue reading this editorial.

Wikimedia Commons

The Western Virginia Regional Jail wants to help inmates get IDs so they can find work upon release.

Anything jails can do to help inmates avoid re-offending is good policy, for offenders and the public: If they do no more crime, they get no more time.

The state prison system is working toward that end with a Department of Corrections initiative this year aimed at providing every inmate nearing release with a state-issued ID. Without one, ex-cons would find it nearly impossible to get legitimate work.

Continue reading this editorial.

By Wendy Kellam

I’m sure you’ve heard the hot topic in Martinsville. I am referring to the quilt that was presented to the city council by students from the Piedmont Governor’s School. I have listened to many opinions about the quilt. Again, I have listened because most of our learning comes from listening.

A white co-worker and I had a great discussion. She and I gave opinions, which differed, but we were able to listen and understand each other’s point of view. When my co-worker said, “I’m not black so I never thought of it from that perspective,” I thought her words were a refreshing honesty that more people (of all races) need to dig into. However, as a black woman, I understand how Councilwoman Sharon Brooks Hodge felt when the quilt was presented and the reference was made about the black man on the quilt.

Continue reading.

Kellam, of Bassett, works for Technique Solutions, is president of the Virginia sister chapter of Pretty Girls Rock, which mentors girls ages 6 to 18, and is publishing a book, “America’s Most Wanted, Young Black Males.”

By Gregory Moulthrop

Today’s Internet generates images of hip twenty-something programmers building websites, advertising the latest in pop culture in their dorm rooms or consumers getting in their last-minute bid for a product on eBay or Amazon. Broadband is also ushering in a whole new era of e-commerce in some of America’s least populated regions, such as rural Virginia, and brings the promise of transforming the economy.

In spite of the recession, America’s rural small businesses have grown in the last few years, largely because of broadband connectivity. Broadband access is critical for small rural companies to connect producers of goods directly to retailers and consumers. Today’s cloud-based applications require only basic hardware and a high-speed connection, effectively “sharing” the cost of the service among its users to keep its prices so low.

Continue reading.

Moulthrop is the founder and CEO of Economic Technology Systems, headquartered in Loudoun County.

By Adam Peters

I am a parent of two wonderful children, a sixth-grade boy at Ben Franklin Middle School and a fourth-grade girl at Windy Gap. Both are in the Gateway; my son just completed his evaluation for Advanced Placement courses with high marks, and my daughter should be taking the Test of Mathematical Abilities for Gifted Students next year, assuming the program still exists. Both are doing quite well. We also know a lot of other kids who are excelling in these challenging times and doing remarkably well.

If I understand the recently shot down 2-cent tax proposal, according to city-data.com, the average home value in Franklin County was $154,000; therefore, the annual tax increase would be $31 on average.

Continue reading.

Peters, his wife and children live in Hardy. He works in Christiansburg.

By Tom Joyce

On April 23, Franklin County supervisors voted 6-1 to disapprove a 2-cent real estate tax increase ($20 per year per $100,000 of assessed valuation) for their public schools. They did so despite being advised by the Franklin County School Board of the specific program cuts that would necessitate, and of the harm that would inflict on the education of the county’s children.

Further, the county’s superintendent of schools, Mark Church, told the supervisors that even with the 2-cent increase, the resulting budget would be “the bare minimum needed to keep the school system running. It is a stabilization budget and does not really address our true needs.” Church provided a detailed plan to begin to meet those needs. Again, the board of supervisors said no.

Continue reading.

Joyce is a retired information technology office director. He lives in Hardy.

Franklin County supervisors should have learned by now the harm they are causing.

Members of the Franklin County School Board are faced with choices, one as bad as the next, as they attempt to squeeze out $1.2 million in spending: Deny bright students the prestige of attending the Governor’s School? Lay off resource teachers and social workers who help struggling students? Bench middle school athletes? Freeze teachers’ salaries for the fifth year and turn back state money meant to boost their pay?

The only choice Franklin County supervisors have denied them: Do no harm.

Continue reading this editorial.

The surest way to keep poor people poor is to deny them a proper education.

The true measure of a place is how well it prepares for the future by taking care of its children. By that yardstick, Franklin County supervisors fall short.

Supervisors voted down a 2-cent increase in the real estate tax that would have allowed the county’s schools to continue on their pace. Now, the school board will be faced on Wednesday with making difficult and hurtful spending cuts that could increase class sizes, curtail help to struggling students, prevent the brightest students from attending the governor’s school, and reserve sports and activities for children who happen to come from families that can pay to play.

Continue reading this editorial.