A recent article from the New York Times showed up in my Facebook feed. Actually, this article showed up a couple of days ago in another news publication, but I failed to catch it.
Let me ask my readers this question: Why on Earth does a high school need a major stadium and events center? Um, hello, this is a HIGH SCHOOL, not a college.
I realize that Texans love their football. I also realize that Texans love bull riding, barbecue, and big cars. Texas is a world all to their own. I get it. However. Yes, there's a however. Our country is still creeping along with an economic recovery that's not been particularly evident. The unemployment rate has gone down, but that number is rather deceiving. Why, oh, why does a high school need a $63 MILLION stadium? I fail to see the logic in this.
Here in Missouri, particularly St. Louis, our local school districts can't support this sort of expenditure. Even the wealthiest school districts (Parkway and Rockwood, for example). When my kids attended Ritenour, only family and close friends attended the high school football games and there was still plenty of room in the stands for more people. The visitor stands had even fewer people occupying them. Ritenour's football team has improved over the years - they even made it to the regional playoffs (a feat that had never happened before). But twelve thousand seats? Seriously? High school regular football season is shorter than college and pro football season. High school playoffs tend to wrap up before the holidays.
I could almost see the logic of such an expenditure if it served all the school districts in the surrounding area, not just one high school. Same with the events center. Of course, this raises the security issue which exists between rival high schools. I'm sure, here in St. Louis, Ritenour and Pattonville would not be keen on sharing space, nor would Kirkwood and Webster Groves. Maybe rivalries in Texas are more intense. I wouldn't know.
All I do understand, is that in a world where jobs are scarce, money is tight, and our educational system is at odds with the rest of the world, we really don't need mega high school football stadiums.
1 comment:
I don't understand it, really, but I think it comes down to a basic human inability to empathize with people who are literally or culturally far away. There are towns in Texas that don't have safe water. There are towns in Texas that have never had safe water. These long standing public health problems aren't dealt with because the people there aren't "us". They're brown. They're "immigrants", though in actuality many of the families have been Texan for as long as Texas has been a state.
The education system of Texas is being torn to shreds by the people actually elected to take care of the system. Texas exceptionalism, though, is the same phenomenon as American exceptionalism. Similar issues, similar mixed up priorities can be found in every state, and in the country as a whole though the flagrant display of excess may not be stadiums.
The only solution is to widen the definition of "us". And this is happening. Too slowly for my taste.
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