The Chicken or the Egg?

Continuing on the theme of promoting Rockford, I have to say I was troubled by a comment that was made during the community meeting I attended last night. I believe the comment was made by a well-meaning person and intended to provide insight into how we could garner more support for the school system. However, for me, it was similar to the debate over which came first, the chicken or the egg. I'm not going to be able to provide a direct quote, but essentially the comment was the school needs to "sell" the community on what a good job it's doing so that the community will want to support the school. Basically a comparison to how a salesperson makes a customer want to buy a product. Which comes first, community support for the school so the school can do great things, or the school doing great things so the community will provide support?

I understand the logic behind a salesperson needing to create a desire within a client that will drive that client to invest in the product and/or company. The customer starts with no investment in that company and must be "sold" on its value. I view the public school in a community in a different way. The residents of a school district are automatically invested because the school is located in their community. The community is not a collection of customers, but rather a collection of shareholders. As shareholders, the community should be supporting the school because they want the school to do great things, not waiting for the school to do great things before offering their support.

The residents of this district have shown they want to support this school system. As I have mentioned before, we have facilities that rival any of a district our size, and some even larger. That is a concrete demonstration of wanting the school to do great things. However, it's not enough to have great facilities, a district needs the proper funding to operate, to provide the quality learning experiences that will allow all students in the district to reach their full potential. Currently we don't have that proper funding. And, until the state legislators muster the will to provide adequate funding to all schools, it will be left to each community to make sure its school has what it needs to do great things.

I would like to believe that each community wants its school to be a great place for students to get a quality education and would do whatever it takes to see that is done. What could be more attractive to potential residents than a district that can boast, "We make sure our students have what they need to be prepared to compete in the 21st Century". Why wouldn't someone want to send their children to a district like that?

I guess I just want people to understand we're in this together. Not because you've jumped on a bandwagon based on something you saw in a newspaper, but because this is your school and you want it to be the best.