On this page you will find a letter from John Overington, a former, long-time, legislator. On one of my first trips to Charleston, right after Brent Boggs was first elected to the House of Delegates, Brent introduced me to John. I seriously doubt that he remembers that encounter, but you will note from his letter that we have other things in common as well.
I imagine one of them is buying newspapers as we travel. I always like to see what other publications are doing for their community. I often get fresh ideas that I have incorporated in our papers. I assume John has similar interests.
I certainly appreciate John’s thoughts. As he pointed out, the eastern panhandle is quite different from our area. My affiliation with the Press Association and publishers from that area gave me prior knowledge of how fast that area grows. However, John put it in perspective with his numbers which are amazing. That is probably the only area of West Virginia where the population is well over 4 times larger than it was 50 years ago.
That simple fact reaffirms my opposition to giving public money for private education. Particularly, with no more accountability than the Hope Scholarship program has.
I don’t want to offend anyone, but the panhandles of our beautiful state don’t have much in common with the lifestyle of the vast majority of West Virginia’s people.
While I certainly sympathize with the problems they face, we are creating many more by financially gutting our public education system.
If legislators are hell-bent on supporting what they term as choice in education, and they apparently are, they owe it to the balance of our population to make sure it doesn’t result in a “rob Peter to pay Paul” scenario, which in my opinion, is exactly what is happening.
I’m not saying our education system is without flaws, it isn’t. Those problems need addressed and have for years. However, the victims can’t be the majority of our children for the benefit of a few and that is what is happening now.
I do appreciate John’s perspective, and I appreciate him taking time to share it with our readers.