Monday’s story about the enrollment of Anderson Community Schools taking a plunge doesn’t bode well for the community. Schools are an important part of any city and town. Maintaining excellence in educational institutions, while difficult, needs to be a top priority.

ACS has lost 378 students this school year, a third of whom have gone to Frankton-Lapel. Looking at the graph that accompanied the story, ACS has been in a steady decline for 20 years.

As a result of the drop in students, ACS will lose $2.3 million in revenue. This is on top of losses in the next couple of years due to property tax adjustments. Kevin Brown, ACS business manager, said, “If you have substantial losses every year, it becomes a death spiral for you.”

Another result will be redistricting. Monday’s story mentioned students at Southview Elementary could be moved.

A third result will be budget cutbacks with the ever-present possibility of cutting teachers. Rick Muir, president of the Anderson Federation of Teachers, had a good point when he said cuts should be far away from the classroom. Cutting teaching staff would seem to fly in the face of making ACS a better school system.

There are many reasons why students are leaving. There is always a natural emigration as people move away, and Anderson is losing population as people follow jobs.

But it’s interesting to see that a third have gone to Frankton-Lapel Community Schools. This sends a message that ACS cannot compete academically with Frankton-Lapel. Recently Lapel Elementary School was named a four-star school by the Department of Education, the only school so named in the county.

Having a good educational system is often the deciding factor for people who are moving to the community or who want to start a business. Good schools are an economic development lure. If the city’s schools are falling behind to the point that people want to move away from them, then that’s a problem the whole community must face and rectify.

One thing school board members and administrators can do is look at other school systems and see what works, then implement new ideas. SAT scores, graduation rates and dropout rates all factor in to how ACS is perceived. Reversing those will take foresight and effort, but if it’s not done the exodus will continue until the system implodes.

Schools are beacons of enlightenment and learning that the community can look up to. Everyone needs to put forth the effort to make city schools a destination for students and not someplace in which to escape.

We believe: Anderson’s schools need to be a destination for students and not someplace in which to escape.