Here is a challenge for every elected city, county and state official in Hamilton County: Expend as much energy fighting to find public money -- or issue bonds and go into debt, whatever it takes -- on Hamilton County schools and students as you recently threw around like confetti to celebrate your intense determination to build a $79.5 million stadium for the wealthy owners and investors of the Chattanooga Lookouts.
For years, it seems our elected leaders have kicked the can down the road on the fact that many of our school buildings are crumbling around our students. Our 74 school buildings, with an average age of 40, have a $1.36 billion deficit in deferred maintenance.
Also for years, local and state officials have pointed like a circular firing squad at each other for the failure to better invest in teachers, counselors and proven programs.
All that finger pointing and procrastination have led to the point where now almost two thirds of our third-grade students once again likely will not read at grade level by the end of the year, and that means they likely will not be promoted to the fourth grade if a new Tennessee law requiring they be held back remains in place.
Likewise, for years, Hamilton County athletic teams have competed to get to state tournaments only to continue their years-long championship title drought in football and basketball since the TSSAA began its three classification system in 1976.
These failures aren't new. But we're not paying attention.
As a result, our leaders continue to try to persuade us they are doing the right thing by looking to pay with mostly public money for the construction of a shiny new stadium for a minor league baseball team that may not even be here in a few years. They try to justify this by saying a stadium will be the catalyst for new growth and development in the city's Southside, and if that new growth reaches $350 million, it would generate $40 million in new funding for our schools over a 30-year period.
If. And growth already generates new schools money. Every year.
Baseball -- or any sport -- is just sexier than schools, you say? Not, apparently, if the sport is for our own students.
Just last Sunday, the Chattanooga Times Free Press made crystal clear why our high schools haven't for a while and likely may not again win state football and basketball tournaments. Our public schools cannot compete at the highest levels because, for the most part, we're not investing in their coaching, their weight programs, their fields, their gymnasiums, their tracks.
Let us say, again: We're not investing in our own kids.
Brainerd's athletic teams share a cramped 945-square-foot weight room with four stations to use for either bench press or squats. Most of the weights were donated by private schools after they updated.
When it rains, East Ridge basketball games have to be moved from the main gym -- built in 1987 -- to the old gym -- built in 1958 -- because of leaks in the roof. Locker room showers don't work, and often the air conditioning and heat don't either.
Hamilton is the state's only metro county that does not have a public school football field with artificial turf. This isn't just a maintenance issue; it's a safety issue. The padded artificial turf reduces the risk of concussion. By the way, all 19 Knox County public schools have artificial turf.
Sounding a bit defensive, Hamilton's new athletic director Tim James told the TFP the county has been chipping away at school facility and athletic needs.
"There has been a concerted effort by Hamilton County schools to begin to address facility and athletic needs, and the proof is that the school system has spent somewhere around $20 million over the past five years for upgrades or new facilities," he said, noting 22 projects including track renovations at six schools, replacing gym floors or bleachers at five schools and building new football stadiums at The Howard School and Sale Creek.
Let's review: $20 million for 22 projects over five years.
Yet in the last five months, Chattanooga and Hamilton County mayors, along with all but one county commissioner and all city council members, have exalted the idea of spending nearly $80 million to build the Lookouts a new stadium with no up-front Lookouts money. In fact, the Lookouts eventually will pay only 22% of city's and county's debt from the planned bond issue to construct the new stadium. That 22% will come from Lookouts game parking revenue and a $1 million-a-year lease payment once the stadium is open.
We can agree to be on the hook for $68 million for the Lookouts but we can't take care of our own public schools and students?
A friend said to us: Why throw good money after bad?
We're guessing that means an assumption that the kids in public school here (almost 38% eligible for free and reduced-price lunches) aren't learning anyway and the buildings can't really be fixed and nobody cares.
The friend said: The stadium is a shiny new object to make everybody feel good.
Well, folks, that's just pathetic. And we should be ashamed.
We repeat our challenge to local leaders -- and to taxpayers, too: Let's get in a rush to invest in our children and their education. Why wouldn't we think that will pay more dividends for Chattanooga and Hamilton County than a baseball stadium?