As to consolidated schools, among the best things to ever happen to WV. First, of course, the declining population makes it necessary, but I would argue, as a graduate of the coalfields schools of a bygone era, it is 100% the right thing to do anyway.
Above middle school, all of my teachers in what today we call STEM, as well as in English, were simply incompetent. I mean that in the LITERAL sense of that word. They could not have passed a HS class taught in normal America in the subject they were teaching. The last math class I took, 10th grade Algebra, consisted of the teacher and the smartest kid in the class trying to figure how to work the problem to get the answer in her book, because SHE DID NOT KNOW HOW TO WORK THE PROBLEMS. Incompetent. I dropped the class, took shop math to get a credit to graduate, went to college and never looked back. Same can be said for my science teacher who did not know basic science principles, or my English teachers who had never read a book, unless you count Harlequin Romances.
At least with consolidation, you can have a chance at providing a reasonable education to students that want to escape.
