OPINION: Kudos to Chattanooga for schools help; beware of some bean counter down the road

Jul. 27—For many years, school officials have talked about the increasing need for counselors and social workers in our schools — a need so great it can't be filled simply with career counselors of old that we Baby Boomers and Gen Xers knew in school.

This newer need is for support professionals who can coordinate everything from lessons and safety to health and mental health aid, as well as lunches, supplies and pencils. What's more, their efforts would not be just for students and teachers, but also for parents and other community support agencies looking to help.

On Monday, Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly said the city would make the "talk" we've been hearing for years finally a reality for seven Hamilton County schools this fall. The city will fund this kind of support for Brainerd High School, Dalewood and Orchard Knob middle schools, and Calvin Donaldson, Hardy, Orchard Knob, and Woodmore elementary schools.

Kelly had some fancier words to describe these social support positions: "community forward schools coordinators."

And he had a beefed-up job description: Coordinators will recruit and coordinate programs, resources, and "wraparound" services in the schools and community organizations "to meet the holistic needs of students and families."

The coordinators, according to the job description on the Chattanooga.gov job applications page, also will be responsible for implementing "whole-child and whole-family strategies to strengthen student and family networks in order to help children thrive."

Put another way, their job is to eliminate barriers to student learning and student success.

The city has not announced a dollar figure for the investment, and Kelly told reporters that more information will be released during the city's budget presentation in August. A spokesperson for Kelly said the city is "anticipating a nearly $1 million investment into our city's students for this program." The jobs posting says a community forward schools coordinator position will pay $55,000 to $65,000 annually.

The city's new economic partnership with Hamilton County, which funds the schools, marks Chattanooga's first funding investment in Hamilton County Schools since the separate city and county school systems merged in 1997.

"I've said repeatedly that education is the single most important long-term strategic issue that Chattanooga is facing," Kelly said at the Monday news conference outside Orchard Knob Elementary, one of the benefactor schools. "And while the city may not technically be in the school business anymore, we must be invested in an education system that works for every child from cradle to career.

That is particularly true for schools inside the city limits, many of which have students from high poverty communities who too often enter school without enough vocabulary to be ready to learn and who by third grade are still reading below grade level.

"Here's how it's gonna work," Kelly said. "We're embedding city-funded staff in seven schools across our district, working with principals to bring families resources to support their kids' social and emotional development, making sure they have access to safe and secure housing, and even career services, to open pathways to good-paying jobs," he said. "By directly engaging with families, students, teachers and principals in schools, and also in our city community centers, we can tailor these resources directly to our community's needs, helping every student to realize their full potential."

Finally — actions to meet the talk we've heard over and over from industry and Chamber of Commerce leaders, Chatt 2.0, and a separate report commissioned some years ago by County Mayor Jim Coppinger.

Too often in Hamilton County, talk about adding this kind of support came with talk of tax increases to better fund education and meet these needs. And too often, those increases have been opposed by suburban residents who thought that only inner-city schools and children would benefit so why should they pay for it? Others struggled with the idea that the tax increase in effect would mean "we're giving up on the family" fixing itself — the family that doesn't or can't read to infants and toddlers to get them ready to start kindergarten.

Here's the thing. We have to meet children where they are and know that no matter where they live today, they will be our neighbors and co-workers (perhaps employees or employers) tomorrow. The way we help families fix themselves is by educating all of our children to grow beyond any impaired upbringings. If we keep kicking that can down the road, that really is "giving up on the family."

Asked if the county had intentions to establish a similar program at schools outside of Chattanooga, Coppinger said the county general government and commission will "always be looking for some mechanism to plug in to try to help our young people."

It was more pretty words, but not really an answer.

Here's the better question: Will the county try to cut its allocation to schools to match the city's add?

Here's one more question: Are we as a community going to hold the county mayor's and county commissioners' feet to the fire not to cut their budgets for the schools by that same city amount?

Get ready, because you know someone will try it.