Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

In this editorial article, Mac Legerton, a member of The Fayetteville Observer’s Community Advisory Board, is discussing how schools have turned into places dedicated to teaching and testing, instead of being a learning community for the students, which has led to a dip in motivation for those in school.

Legerton mentions the school consolidation issue in Robeson County, saying it focused on costs more than education quality. He also references the two-tier system (K-8, 9-12) that is being proposed.

In the article, he states “There is a national K-8 school reform model with standards that need to be followed if education quality is to be improved. Just building new buildings and placing more children in them at a younger age is a way to ensure that improvement won't happen.”

He then goes on to list points on the national model for the two-tier system. He suggests that the public should respect the school board; utilize professional, free services; contract with national consultants; and have the school board engage parents in the deliberations.

He ended by saying that the public should back off political and financial interests and let those on the board do their job, and said “Then we can stand proud together and demonstrate to our state and nation that people in the most ethnically diverse rural county in the U.S. know how to do their business together with a government that is ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.’”