And then...there's all this. As much as one might like to think that resistance would be solely based on a single community wanting the best for its own students....the whole power play thing does come into play too.
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Erie County has 29 times the number of school boards as Charlotte. Why does eliminating wasteful beaurocracy equate to having your life revolve around Buffalo. Where in any post did I say anything about selfish suburbanites? Where did I say anything about the suburbs at all?
By the Way. The Indianapolis metro area only has 11 school boards. That metro has about 600,000 more people that the Buffalo area. It is also a growing metro. Do you see a trend here.
Oh and Niagara County adds another 10 (that would be equivalent to 45 in Erie County) school districts for a grand total of 39 for the metro
39 School districts!
The three largest counties of Atlanta's sprawling metro have over 2.3 million people. They have 5 school districts. Atlanta metro was smaller than Buffalo in 1950. Today it is about 5 times larger and growing.
I wonder why that is.
Buffalo 45 districts for 1.2M
Atlanta 5 districts for 2.3 Million
WNY has 116 districts for 1.5 Million people
Understand, I'm not against consolidation per se. I'm against FORCING people into consolidation.
Atlanta and Charlotte were built up during a time when it was practical to bind together different geographical areas. When many of the WNY school systems were formed, it was difficult if not impossible to send your children 15 miles away to a school...and banding together even in an administrative manner made no sense because you had no other practical relationship with those other communities. If Atlanta and Charlotte already had these myriad school districts, you can bet your left nad that the locales wouldn't be giving them up so easily.
The county Cleveland is in has 9 school districts.
If the people of WNY want to support a failed and wasteful system of government they should stop complaining about high taxes.
Wny and NY is screwed mostly because it continues to be inefficient on all levels. Show me a government based economy that is self sustaining. Most people that live here have not woken up, apathetic or are beneficiaries in some way from the government.
Louisville where I worked at one time seems to have gotten the message as well.