Education, not location, matters most

By By Randy Sparkman, guest columnist
The Hartselle city school board is correct to insist that priority be assigned to dollars spent inside a new high school rather than where the school sits.
Let me first say, the decision by the Hartselle City Council to increase sales tax and move forward with the construction of a new high school is a good one. It serves the best interest of the children of our community, which, in turn, strengthens our civic foundation. Secondly, investment in the local education system has proven time and again as the single most effective engine for long-term economic growth.
As most know, this is by no means a popular decision in Hartselle. Those opposed do not question the value of education. They express a well-founded and timeworn distrust of public debt and any government’s ability to extract value from those borrowed dollars. That worry combined with a loan that spans a generation signed in the middle of a punch-drunk economy has many in Hartselle furrowing their brow.
The Hartselle City Council and school board are not blind to those concerns. They feel the weight of the responsibility for binding our community to a $40 million dollar debt. They, like all local Alabama city and county officials, do what they can to fund a perennially barefoot and pregnant education system. Theirs is a faith-based decision, with a lower case “f”. They have faith in the long view, faith in the economic system of this country and faith that the young folks we educate will in turn husband the resources they’ve been given for future generations. There will be challenges to meet the debt, but better to meet those challenges head-on than let timidity shackle our kids to the past as the world moves past them.
With their political futures and peaceful sleep squarely at risk, city leaders must now prioritize how the borrowed money will be spent.
During the work session, Hartselle city school system Superintendent, Dr. Michael Reed, asked the city council to hold firm to previous budget marks. Original discussions assumed the school would be built on property already owned by the school board. The city council has identified another potential site near the Hartselle Interstate 65 exchanges. The city council and other leaders are convinced location of the school on this property will create economic activity to augment tax revenues and serve as a marketing message to potential industry and residents. Purchase of land by the interstate leaves the city council with a choice: increase the cost of the project or reduce money available to build the school itself.
I contend that money spent on the teaching environment inside the school creates a far greater basis for economic growth than money spent on location.
Good schools make local economies grow in two ways: attracting and keeping well-paid residents and attracting and keeping well paying employers. A family that spends middle class salaries will not move to, or stay in Hartselle, unless the school system makes their kids competitive in the workplace and in life. A company will not set up shop in a community where potential employees cannot read, write and compute. It’s that simple. Tax revenue gained from restaurant or shopping centers cannot compare with tax revenues from local families with good jobs outside the area and companies with the wherewithal to employ them locally.
There has been discussion of synergy with the new Morgan County Business Park. It, too, is deeply dependent on the local education system. This economy has done a fundamental and permanent reset. It is naive to think growth in that park will come from brick and mortar, capital-intensive manufacturing.
The likely candidates are service, call center, logistics, shipping, information technology, or light fabrication concerns. They will be knowledge and information dependent and insist on skilled workers who are familiar with basic but state-of-the-art technology and office environments — skills learned in a modern educational setting.
Further, these companies will not locate here if they cannot attract and maintain skilled managers who will insist on good schools for their children.
I am not lobbying against the interstate site by any measure. Many Alabama communities have benefited economically and in quality of life from the growth at Interstate exchanges.
I am saying, do not ask the Hartselle school board to compromise to support interstate growth in the spirit of economic development. That is throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water.