The challenges in our community are plentiful and significant. Local leaders’ support for and understanding of what is needed to create high-quality public schools should be at the top of the list because they are foundational to building a strong community.
The impact public schools have on their communities is deep, wide, long, and powerful. Well-educated citizens fuel their community’s economic growth and tax revenues. In turn, well-educated people want to live where they can get the best return on their educational investment in the form of plentiful, well-paying jobs, along with other amenities, and an excellent quality of life.
If we want the community to improve in any one of these areas: economic growth, more and better-paying jobs, individual and collective wealth and health, better property values, tax base growth, decreased crime, or better overall quality of life, then strengthening and improving our public schools is key.
Each of these community attributes is enhanced when public schools are supported not only by parents but also by the community and elected officials. Such support leads to more children being educated well and equitably.
When those well-educated children become adults, they contribute to their community in multiple ways over the course of their lifetimes so the cycle of success continues as long as public schools are supported effectively. Public schools are the training ground for life. Educators know firsthand that it takes more time, money, and effort to educate a child who comes from a home of poverty. In Meridian, almost 80% of our school-age children get their first 12-15 years of life training in our public schools and most of these children come from economically disadvantaged homes.
Research shows that there is a direct relationship between socioeconomic levels, test scores, and school accountability ratings. Our own student achievement data shows that poor children are struggling, but the data also shows that they can learn and that many are succeeding despite the gauntlet of challenges that come with being born into an impoverished family.
Vibrant communities are ones where more folks work together consistently to improve their public schools. When elected officials understand the unique and significant value of their public schools, they are more likely to use their leadership role to contribute to that value. When voters understand the critical nature of electing leaders who recognize the value of their public schools in their community’s capacity to succeed, they are more likely to vote for leaders who will engage with them in the good and necessary work of strengthening their public schools. (Learn more.)