A lot has been said, argued over, and voted on in recent years concerning funding for schools. Our own school system has cut about everything they can without having to cut personnel. However, at one of their recent meetings it was made clear that if the economy doesn’t improve, personnel cuts are inevitable.
And yet, there is money on the table. We just overlook it way too often. And by “we” I mean “me.”
Our local paper recently published a story that one and only mall in our town was sold in a foreclosure. It seems we can never keep stores solvent in that place. I rarely go there. Even the stores I like don’t carry things I want.
Yesterday I discovered an article where a local restaurant had closed its doors on Wednesday. Oliver’s hadn’t been in business that long, but the Shoney’s that closed up shop a few months ago was the place to eat when I got here in 1976. A landmark is gone.
We passed a referendum last year increasing our county tax in order to fund schools at a higher rate. It costs me $.01 more to buy a tall Pike Place from Starbucks locally than it does to purchase it in Hamilton County. Everything is now a little more expensive in our town. But people were flocking to our neighboring county even for all those years when it cost more to do so.
Why? The easy answer is that its the economy. Businesses are hurting everywhere. And yet there is a more difficult answer we often don’t want to hear.
We don’t shop or eat in Bradley County.
For years, I have made the trek to Hamilton Place Mall 20 miles down the road to go shopping. I’ve even started getting my haircut there. And while you’re shopping, it is just easier to eat there, too. And the movie theater is more comfortable. Even the popcorn sometimes tastes better in Hamilton County.
We had a long fight over liquor by the drink in our county. The biggest argument for approving the change was that it would bring in more businesses. And it did. Chili’s is now here. The Outback showed up. And yet people are still heard complaining because we don’t have a Red Lobster. Hamilton County does, of course.
Here’s the bottom line: Every dollar we spend outside of Bradley County reduces the funding we provide our local schools.
Can we purchase everything we need locally? Maybe. Can we purchase everything we want locally? No. We will spend money elsewhere. I will spend money elsewhere.
But I promise you this. I will think long and hard about whether I really need to drive the 40 mile round trip to get a steak that is available to me within five miles of my house.
So, in my new found patriotic fervor, I had breakfast at the Rebel this morning. And I’m writing this post while enjoying my tall Pike Place at Starbucks. Our school district’s CFO can thank me later. In the meantime, I’ll hold my head a little higher when I walk into my classroom this year.
I’m learning to support myself.