Have you noticed how technology has accelerated the passage of time … well actually the perception of time’s passage? It’s difficult to keep abreast of all the advancement made at such breakneck speed.

For instance, I see ads on TV for education of grades 1-12, for free … right on the internet. Then, the thought occurred that, in the very near future, our brand new school buildings might well be rendered obsolete in favor of the virtual classroom. At the very least there will be fewer and fewer students attending brick and mortar schools. Take Cincinnati State in Middletown for example. They predicted that our campus would have full classrooms with a minimum of 5,000 students for them to break even. But in reality there are only about 700 total students, the majority of whom are online … no physical presence required. Therefore our downtown gained little or no new activity and the several buildings that the city donated to them, now sit empty or under used. Prediction: Within 2 years Middletown campus of Cincinnati State will no longer exist and the city will have more empty buildings to maintain or abandon.

We have replaced virtually all of our school buildings with expensive larger schools, but the number of students in Middletown’s school system continues to decline for several reasons. Those reasons: poor academic rating; prevalence of drugs and bullying; threat of possible terrorism (nation wide); decline in population due to lack of jobs and amenities; and having a reputation as a high crime area. Home schooling has become a safe haven as well as providing a superior education (assuming the student is serious).

Middletown’s big, fancy, expensive, brand new buildings have not improved our poor academic performance rating. Will our new buildings be empty and useless in the near future? Think of all the tax dollars spent. That mistake may have already been made, but Mr Adkins and city hall could avoid making the mistake of building new unneeded homes, probably at great expense to the city’s tax payers. Repeated declaration that housing is a problem, doesn’t make it true; just like expecting new school buildings to improve academic performance is useless.

Learning from the past but thinking ahead in order to make good and timely progress, is an important attribute for all levels of government, business, industry and even the individual. Our city government is in denial about our decrepit condition; refuses to recognize the rapid growth of the surrounding area; and insists on repeating past mistakes that will eventually bury us!