Assignment: Colonel's comments crystallize what schools, community must do

Fourth Fighter Wing commander Col. Mark Slocum was blunt with Wayne County school principals at a meeting last week.

The county schools are not always measuring up to the standards expected by the Air Force, Slocum told them.

This is troubling news, but it is good that Slocum minced no words in his discussion. The best way to solve a problem is by attacking it directly.

Slocum described Air Force parents who are so concerned over what they perceive as the schools' inability to provide a quality education that they are staying in temporary quarters here but living elsewhere so they can send their children to school in other counties in order for them to get the education they feel their children deserve.

The situation is worrisome. If the Air Force believes that Wayne County offers subpar educational opportunities, it could jeopardize the status of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

It is no secret that Seymour Johnson is crucial to the well-being of the Wayne County economy. Providing a good education for the children of airmen stationed here is something that every Wayne County resident has a stake in. Not to mention the fact that non-Air Force children might be missing out on the educational opportunities they too deserve.

Slocum's message should serve as a wake-up call to school officials and to Wayne residents in general. Steps must be taken to improve the quality of education in the county. Nothing short of making that happen is acceptable.

Published in Editorials on December 14, 2015 12:03 PM