EDITORIAL: School system mistakes hit West Jackson hard

People living in West Jackson should be hopping mad at the financial problems facing the Jackson County Board of Education.


In a nutshell, the higher property values in the West Jackson area are subsidizing school operations on the opposite side of the county.

Rather than building new schools in the county’s main growth corridor — West Jackson — the county school system built them on the East side of the county.

But because those schools are farthest away from the county’s main growth, they’re under-populated by students, yet the overhead costs are still in place.

This has pushed the per pupil costs in the system way above the state average, costs which are being carried to a large extent by West Jackson taxpayers.

Making matters worse, the system has become one of the weakest in the state financially because of that bad decision and a general lack of fiscal discipline. So while a new high school is needed in the West Jackson Area, the county school system won’t be able to afford it until far in the future. All of its investment is in its East Jackson school where empty classrooms abound.

So highly-taxed West Jackson citizens are getting a double hit by all of this; no new schools and they’re being forced to pay high taxes because of school system mismanagement.

What a mess.