Our little town built a new high school – sixty years ago. To accommodate 250 students. (When the population was over double what it is today). A gymnasium, a large, very well equipped, woodworking shop, a teaching kitchen, with 18 stoves & sinks, a library, of course, a science lab, and a dozen classrooms. Truly a state of the art educational facility when it opened in 1963.

Our new school was well staffed too! We had a principal, a 'secretary', and a 'custodian'. Our shop teacher did double duty in facilities maintenance. And there were twelve or thirteen teachers, depending on enrollment. (Which varied between 190 and 220 through the 60s and 70s). So the total staffing requirement, for 200 students, was fifteen. Two [2] of whom were administrators. Staff to student ratio 13:1. One staff person for every 13 kids.

Our school is still there. For now. The teaching kitchen is long gone. As are the Home Ec programs it supported. Turned into a breakfast/lunch room so the school can “ensure the children have healthy meals”. The shop is still there. The ten of thousands of dollars of equipment idle, except for the rare occasions when school district workers use it for maintenance projects, or their personal hobbies. The library, inexplicably, is gone. Turned into an unused “computer lab”. Replete with antiquated electronics. (The kids i-pads and phones are MUCH more up to date!)

And the stats are different. Very different. Our school is no longer a high school. Some years ago, we tore down the elementary school and combined everything into a single “K-12 facility”. In spite of which, enrollment, for the last decade, has seldom reached 100. Last year was about 90. Which has resulted in staffing challenges.

We still have a principal, and a 'secretary', (who is now an “administrator”). And who now has an assistant. So we have three [3] full time administrators. Custodial services are contracted. Maintenance is performed by school district personnel, from 70 miles away. When they can schedule it. And there are the teachers, all six of them. And the five “support staff”. So we have a staff to student ratio of 6.5:1. One staff person for every 6 kids.

My experience as an 'educator' was some time ago. At the college level. So I may not be technically qualified to comment on the relative quality of “education” today as opposed to that of 50 years ago. But I am a parent, grandparent, and great grandparent. I have actively participated in home school activities of three generations of children. And I'm not at all convinced that by doubling up on staff in our public schools that we are adequately preparing our kids for an ever less certain future.