It is time for another exciting installment of the mayor’s column. I’d like to share with you some things I’ve been busying myself with, as your mayor. Before getting into that, I, on behalf of the city, want to extend our thoughts to those who have been affected by this terrible downturn in the economy and the hope that things will improve as soon as possible.

Let me begin with the most straightforward and then work my way into more complex territory. The Richmond Community College campus extension to be built at the old hospital site in Laurinburg remains on hold because the state has not yet released the million dollars they have committed to the project. The other two million dollars are in place. A letter from the Mayor’s office was drafted to our new Governor imploring that the promised funding not fall victim to the state’s budget shortfall. RCC president Sharon Morrissey deserves much credit for making a very strong and insistent case to the state, as does Senator Purcell. Representative Doug Yongue met with Governor Purdue about this last week and says our letter was well received and feels the Governor is looking favorably on releasing the money.

This past week we met with a Washington lobbyist, Marlowe & Company about the Laurinburg Maxton Airport. We are hoping to develop a vision of how the Airport can become the economic development tool that we all feel it can be and a political strategy of how to go about procuring the funds, from the Defense Department and DOT, to make the airport functional. Marlowe has a track record of providing a handsome return on investment for small communities throughout the Carolina’s. Although many communities have small airports, the length of our runways and the proximity to Fort Bragg seem to make ours, as our Airport Director Paul Davis is fond of saying, ‘a diamond in the rough’. It’s time to let that diamond sparkle!

Lastly, and here’s where things get a little complex, I have been spending a lot of time looking into the issue of the ‘School Floor’(the mandatory school funding formula that only our County has) because I believe it is having a serious adverse affect on the citizens, including the youth, of Laurinburg. I am looking into it because I know that that is what makes the County taxes number one in the state and also consumes so much of the county tax dollar that there is not enough money to address many of the needs of the City of Laurinburg. Both of these effects of the ‘School Floor’ are adversely affecting the quality of life here and impeding our growth. I am trying to understand why, if the purpose of the ‘School Floor’ was to ensure that our schools are funded at the state average of per pupil funding, why it is that the schools are funded way above the state average. And why that has not led to an improvement in the graduation rate compared to counties that spend a lot less. I am trying to understand, if the basic purpose of the schools is to provide 1 teacher for every 18 students, that if we paid every teacher $50,000, that that would amount to $18.5 million dollars for our 6,700 students, how is the other $53.5 million dollars being spent in our $72 million dollar school budget? I, personally, don’t think that we will ever change our below-state-average graduation rate of 64 percent until we improve the community in which these youths are failing and get the community more involved in the problem. If we would gradually reduce the amount we give to the schools by $6.5 million dollars(which can be done over a period of 5 to 7 years by attrition, without any layoffs or salary cutbacks, except perhaps administration) , which is the amount over and above what is required to ensure that they receive the state average of per pupil funding, and used that money to lower the taxes 22 cents (so that we would be number 17 in the state instead of number 1), build a state-of-the-art recreation center, get the community more involved in the problem of the low graduation rate, such as with a county- funded, faith-based mentoring program, devote more money to community improvement and economic development, that I would guarantee that the children of Scotland County would have a greater chance for success than they have now. As Mark Twain, our most famous American novelist, and a high school drop-out himself, once said, “I never let my schooling interfere with my education”.

As our county has proven, there is more to educating the youth than handing an over-sized chunk of money to the schools. We’ve tried that, it’s not working for the youth or for the community.