I write in frustration with the Herald Progresses (HP) repeated OpEd publication of the opinions of Ragan Phillips.
While he has every right to voice his opinion, when the HP continues to highlight his factually incorrect opinions, I wonder if the HP is truly interested in the facts or merely selling controversy?
How many times are you going to continue publishing the same guest commentator on the same subject? It’s time for the HP to gather and report the facts.
Put more simply, Mr. Phillips demonstrates a distorted understanding of school finance and state school funding formulas. When he can produce nothing more substantive than comparing pizza halves, his reductionist hyperbole is insulting to me as a reader. To feature such an analysis of our County’s support for local schools is not only misleading to readers but factually wrong in several respects.
Might you now give some thought to securing a thoughtful and knowledgeable analysis of the impact on our local School Division budget by a writer who actually understands the numbers and can correctly interpret them? In addition to the many competent school and county financial staff, you might also consider local experts such as Fiscal Analytics, Ltd. or Chmura Economics & Analytics.
The absence of any substantive attempt by the HP to document the unprecedented downward shift of K-12 Education funding requirements by the State to local governments is disingenuous. It seems the HP’s journalistic responsibility has changed from reporting the facts to that of attempting to shape the news. By all appearances, the HP is merely taking sides with a small, misinformed faction in the community represented by Ragan Phillips.
Some recent writers have proposed raising taxes, which doesn’t have “universal” support with County citizens. As a Hanover resident raising my taxes is not an acceptable option.
Barnie Royer
Mechanicsville, VA 23111
