Chattanooga has achieved yet another dubious ranking: 9th worst-run city in the country – due in no small measure to the quality of schools here.
This smack comes from WalletHub, which rated 33 community factors including crime rates, quality of schools, economic growth and wages, financial stability and other factors – measured against the city’s per-capita budget.
In Chattanooga’s case, this is a bit unfair, since our schools are county-run and county-funded. Yet our students’ learning, or lack of it, affects the city’s crime rate, economic growth, wages and financial stability.
In other words, our youngsters’ education has a direct impact on the quality of life in our entire community.
Fortunately, two stories in Tuesday’s Chattanooga Times Free Press get right to the heart of what we hope and believe will lead to improvement.