After the controversy created last year when the topic of closing school buildings in Warren County – and the ensuing turnover on the Warren County School District Board of Education – it would be understandable if some school board members didn’t want to touch the idea of school closures with a 300-foot pole.

But that’s not leadership. Frankly, it is political cowardice.

John Wortman has to know his push to address the school district’s budget issues by continually bringing up school closures is going to upset people. He’s doing it anyway – to the benefit of students and taxpayers, in our opinion.. Wortman sees the numbers. Our county and school populations are decreasing while our school budgets continue increasing.

There is a limited ability to continually raise larger and larger sums of money by increasing taxes and the state isn’t going to guarantee huge state aid increases each year. The immovable object – people’s opposition to close a school building – is about to meet the irrepressible force of economics.

Note that Wortman isn’t relying on emotion, nor is he relying on anecdotes as he makes his case. We’re about to be bombarded with both in the coming months. Wortman is citing numbers, trends and data. This week, it was the district’s $7.1 million debt load in the 2024-25 budget. Increasing that debt load will be necessary to keep the district’s current configuration; decreasing that debt load could mean more teachers, better equipment for students and, possibly, lower tax increases in the future.

Wortman knows closing a school building isn’t a conversation anyone wants to have. He knows, however, that it is a conversation we need to have even though it’s going to be unpleasant.

That is leadership.