Since the Grapevine seems to make some people mad anyway, we have just decided to go ahead and leap into the “Daphne City Schools” controversy.  In the Sound Off column each day, you may find someone voicing their position on whether or not the City of Daphne should create its own school system.  Most opinions seem to lean against the idea.  Here is another thought.

As this writer understands it, Daphne takes in the highest amount of tax money of all municipalities in Baldwin County.  Some of that tax money goes to support the Baldwin County School System.  Logic would suggest that the tax revenue should be distributed back to the various schools in something of a proportional manner.  In other words, if Daphne sends 30% of the tax revenue to the school board, about that much should be spent on Daphne schools.  However, it appears that may not be the case.   Not distributing the revenue proportionately might very well be reasonable.  A school system would be expected to spend revenue where it is needed most.  However, many feel that Daphne is not receiving the attention from the school board and school system administration that it should.

The story goes that there is one very influential school board member from the Bay Minette area and one from Fairhope.  Apparently the school superintendent has not figured out to deal with them and so progress in the school system is based less on appropriate system-wide education value and more on politics.  It is said the school system is run in such a way that Daphne is being treated something like the poor stepsister, left to do the mopping while her sisters go to the ball.  There appears to be some evidence of that in the way the school districting in Daphne has been handled.  They had town hall meetings on the topic and then ignored the recommendations that were offered at those meetings by the residents.  Surely, everyone has heard at least something about this issue.  So, the movement to create a Daphne City School System began.  Actually, it appears this whole issue was stirred up because the school board does not know how to gain a consensus before taking action.  Or, they do not try.

On the positive side, as we understand it, the City would take over the existing schools in the area; create its own school board and the tax money collected for education in Daphne would be spent on schools in Daphne.  Of course, the move would require the creation of a complete school administrative body for the city.  In fact some of the opponents have suggested that they would not want the people who run Daphne to be running our schools, too.  The fact is that City of Daphne would not be running those schools.  That would be handled, hopefully, by professional educators with little interference from the city.  The city already helps out the Baldwin County school system in some ways and they would probably be expected to continue doing so.   Another plus would be that there would then be local control over the quality of local schools.  

So, how would Daphne benefit from creating its own school system?  It would probably have more money spent on the education of Daphne children.  It would gain local control of its schools.  This, for example, would allow the local people to figure out the best way to assign children to schools.  It would also allow local values to determine to some degree what the curriculum will be.

On the downside is the unknown.  The Baldwin County School System has a pretty good reputation.  Would a Daphne school administration do any better?  The answer could be, yes.  There is the example of the recent news item of a new school in Bay Minette that is already seven rooms short of being big enough and they have not even finished building it yet. 

Are there hidden costs?  Would it require new taxes?  Who knows?  There is always risk associated with change.  Many who are knowledgeable about this issue say that the benefits for our children will outweigh the risks. 

The rumors abound.  One rumor is that the reason the Baldwin County School System wants to sell the old elementary school and build a new one is that they want to saddle the Daphne schools with so much debt that the city will not take them over. That certainly seems far fetched. You see, if Daphne takes over the schools, they not only take over the facilities, they take over the debt.

What do you think?  Do you have more information that would help clarify this issue for our residents?  Submit your opinion to our .