School Consolidation

In the 1930's the cost to educate one child was around $400 per year. Now, its around $8000 per year. Ya ya, times have changed, we all know that. But that doesn't deter us from asking if school consolidation has really returned good benefits, or if there might have been a different approach to educating children.
Recent studies on school consolidation--its been happening since the 1920's---have suggested that the drivers for school consolidation were two: efficiency and quality of education. So, how have each faired. This report goes on to say that at first, efficiency was gained by consolidation, but then lost as large districts got to be more bureaucratic and government loaded them up with new requirements. So far, that does not intersect with the quality of education---get to that later.
Efficiency improvement might have been achieved by a different route: Some parts can be consolidated into central management, like purchasing, but that would not mean that local control has to be lost. (more on this later)

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Encounter in Blanco

We often drive to Blanco to get outdoors and seek a cure for our cabin fever, to enjoy the local barbeque, and to hunt for books at the library. We could get addicted to this if it weren't for some concern that this routine would lead to just another form of cabin fever. This time, we stopped for some gasoline and found the local people all in a buzz about the sighting of an extraterrestrial ship. The first accounts were that it was all a hoax and then others came forward and told of the sighting which made us think that a mysterious ship did make a visit. Nobody witnessed the craft's landing, but most sensed that there was some form of transport of a group of beings that somehow made the craft exit and then, without any commotion, they just melded into the mix of people of the area. Now that was a problem because we had always thought that ETs would not look and dress like us but instead have exaggerated bodies and some dress that suggested space travel. We were assured t

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Smithville, USA

If you are not observant while traveling northwest on Highway 71, Smithville will be in the rearview mirror and so then you will have missed it all. It's not on the main road but off to the south a block or so. We have driven past Smithville many times but this time, in order not to miss it, we decided to make that our destination. Smithville's main street runs parallel to the highway that runs north-south and therefore parallel to Highway 71. Highway 71 connecting Houston with Austin runs on the north side of the Colorado River and Smithville is on the south side of the river. This narrow separation from the main trunk line highway is what has spared Smithville from the ultimate doom of either death from isolation or ruin from big city influence. We often travel miles and miles for a new lunch experience and this trip was no different in that it was a 90-minute drive to reach our destination of the Old World Bakery and Cafe. The bakery part is what caught our attention

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