OT Starkville Schools - Lack of class space

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Originally Posted by HeCannotGo

This, this, 1000 times this. Arizona has 7.1 million people and 15 counties. 82 counties in Mississippi, with a population of less than 3 million, is very wasteful. There's no longer a need to have the county seat be no further away than one day's ride on a horse. Consolidating down to 10 or 12 counties (and a like number of school districts, county coroners, etc.) would save massive amounts of taxpayer money that could be better spent elsewhere.

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It's not that unusual. Georgia has 159 counties - 2nd only to Texas. Yes, the state population is about 10 million - but 6 million of those live in 28 counties around Atlanta. That leaves 4 million people in 131 counties spread across the largest state east of the Mississippi. If you subtract Savannah, Macon, Athens, and Augusta that reduces the population to about 3 million across 127 counties. That's a whole lot of local government to pay for.

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Originally Posted by HeCannotGo

This, this, 1000 times this. Arizona has 7.1 million people and 15 counties. 82 counties in Mississippi, with a population of less than 3 million, is very wasteful. There's no longer a need to have the county seat be no further away than one day's ride on a horse. Consolidating down to 10 or 12 counties (and a like number of school districts, county coroners, etc.) would save massive amounts of taxpayer money that could be better spent elsewhere.

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I can agree on consolidating the 156 school districts to 82 (1 for each county), but there is no way that the state will combine 82 counties. There is too many jobs in county government that would be eliminated by combining the counties. Also I don't know how much the home rule would impact the decision of combining counties.

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Originally Posted by fader2103

I can agree on consolidating the 156 school districts to 82 (1 for each county), but there is no way that the state will combine 82 counties. There is too many jobs in county government that would be eliminated by combining the counties. Also I don't know how much the home rule would impact the decision of combining counties.

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That?s the jest of it. I mean does a county of say 20,000 need 5 supervisors making 40k plus with a county vehicle? What about school district offices?

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Originally Posted by Dawg2003

I can only speak for myself, but I was in the public school system through the 5th grade, and I was two years behind when my parents sent me to a private school. Of course, I had been acing everything at the public school. My public school teacher was actually the one who suggested to my parents that they put me in a private school if possible. My parents had to get me private tutors for two years to catch up.

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I went to private school K-12, but would've moved to public school in HS if I hadn't wanted to play sports. My sister went to the same private school through 9th grade, moved to the public school for HS and was blown away how much harder the public school was. She worked her ass off and always said she was kinda embarrassed she didn't make straight A's at the private school once she saw how much easier it was than the public school. We are from Starkville, so I'll let y'all figure out which private and public schools I'm referring to.

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Originally Posted by dawgs

I went to private school K-12, but would've moved to public school in HS if I hadn't wanted to play sports. My sister went to the same private school through 9th grade, moved to the public school for HS and was blown away how much harder the public school was. She worked her ass off and always said she was kinda embarrassed she didn't make straight A's at the private school once she saw how much easier it was than the public school. We are from Starkville, so I'll let y'all figure out which private and public schools I'm referring to.

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I always heard Starkville public schools were better than Starkville Academy. I've heard that from numerous people. You always have to do your research because there are some bogus private schools out there. I was lucky that my parents researched several private schools in our area before picking one, but I live in a much more heavily populated area than Starkville.

It's actually funny that you mention the Starkville schools because one of my old friends was a math professor who had a brother that sent his kid to the more difficult school that you mentioned. He had taught in a lot of different states, but he would always say how behind the MS public schools and MS State were at teaching math. I don't know if that's true, but that was his opinion.

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Originally Posted by fader2103

I can agree on consolidating the 156 school districts to 82 (1 for each county), but there is no way that the state will combine 82 counties. There is too many jobs in county government that would be eliminated by combining the counties. Also I don't know how much the home rule would impact the decision of combining counties.

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The county jobs would create a big special interest group against consolidation, but I'm not sure how many counties are close enough in size and functionality to allow politics for consolidation to begin with. Not that Madison or Hinds are counties that need to be consolidated, but Madison County would obviously fight tooth and nail not to be consolidated with Hinds and its dysfunction. Forrest and Lamar maybe could be consolidated since hattiesburg is in parts of each, but I'm guessing Lamar is less dysfunctional than Forrest and probably wouldn't want to be consolidated with it? The three coastal counties could maybe consolidate, but I'm not sure Jackson or Hancock would want to because of a concern that between the votes in Biloxi and Gulfport and the central geographic location, that Harrison would end up dominating the consolidated county. Would there be a similar concern with the norther three counties?

If you tried to consolidate north and south instead of across the coast and say consolidate Stone with Harrison or George with Jackson county, I think they'd have the same concern about being dominated by larger population centers to the south. I guess Pearl River and Hancock are close enough in size that it might work, and that's probably when you'd get into the political fights over jobs, because the natural geographic location for county government would be picayune.

I'm sure there are some counties where consolidation would at least make sense as far as population and political makeup. Maybe Leake and Neshoba? Smith, Jasper, and Clarke? Rankin and Simpson? Sunflower and Leflore? I'd be curious as to how many people on here live in a county that is adjacent to a county they would be willing to throw their lot in with.

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Originally Posted by Johnson85

The county jobs would create a big special interest group against consolidation, but I'm not sure how many counties are close enough in size and functionality to allow politics for consolidation to begin with. Not that Madison or Hinds are counties that need to be consolidated, but Madison County would obviously fight tooth and nail not to be consolidated with Hinds and its dysfunction. Forrest and Lamar maybe could be consolidated since hattiesburg is in parts of each, but I'm guessing Lamar is less dysfunctional than Forrest and probably wouldn't want to be consolidated with it? The three coastal counties could maybe consolidate, but I'm not sure Jackson or Hancock would want to because of a concern that between the votes in Biloxi and Gulfport and the central geographic location, that Harrison would end up dominating the consolidated county. Would there be a similar concern with the norther three counties?

If you tried to consolidate north and south instead of across the coast and say consolidate Stone with Harrison or George with Jackson county, I think they'd have the same concern about being dominated by larger population centers to the south. I guess Pearl River and Hancock are close enough in size that it might work, and that's probably when you'd get into the political fights over jobs, because the natural geographic location for county government would be picayune.

I'm sure there are some counties where consolidation would at least make sense as far as population and political makeup. Maybe Leake and Neshoba? Smith, Jasper, and Clarke? Rankin and Simpson? Sunflower and Leflore? I'd be curious as to how many people on here live in a county that is adjacent to a county they would be willing to throw their lot in with.

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MS 10 largest counties make up 33% of the total state population. MS has 2 counties with under 5k in total population, 12 counties with under 10k in total population, 35 counties with under 20k in total population and 54 counties with under 30k in total population.

Something needs to be done about that!

I can retire from my career in a few years. I always wanted to teach and plan to do just that in my next career. I don’t know now..... ��

I too would love to teach, but instead I am going to continue to work to make sure my daughter is the best prepared student in the district. I mean, I could teach everything from art class to Calculus and Cal based physics in high school. Not chemistry though, never had a grasp for chemistry. My high school teacher sucked.