By Stephen Smoot
Sometimes problems present themselves so gradually, individuals and society as a whole adapts to them while not even considering ways to solve them. In other cases, a problem presents with significant complexity that makes even small tweaks potentially problematic.
Here are five suggestions for change.
First, West Virginia has growing issues with health care access in communities under 10 or 15,000 people. For reasons mostly of perception, young health care professionals think they get a better deal with the higher salaries of metropolitan areas, which often times they do not.
An eye care clinic in the Potomac Highlands will soon lose its on-site doctor. It also offers virtual care from an experienced eye doctor, but those services cannot continue under West Virginia law. State code requires that an on-site doctor be present when virtual services are provided. While many good reasons exist for this, the benefit of virtual eye care in rural areas outweighs the reasons to have a doctor also physically there. Simply amend the code to allow for virtual-only eye clinics.
Second, and this space has made this point before. Income taxes make zero sense as done in the United States. The Internal Revenue Service and state tax offices already know what people make, for the most part.
The tax office should send each taxpayer a bill for income tax on Jan 31. Between then and April 15, the taxpayer would have a chance to dispute or amend. Once the taxpayer and the government agree, then the government offers a monthly, easy-to-pay, billing process that lasts for 12 months. This would ensure much better compliance and understanding with much less need of both government employees and also the cost of private sector help.
Third suggestion refers to the school aid formula. One significant element that the State does not consider in the aid formula is the square miles of the county funded. Counties like Roane, Harrison, Hampshire, and Pendleton – or Kanawha for that matter – see the challenges of operation exacerbated by distance between communities and facilities, as well as the mountains and hollers within.
Aid that mitigated the expenses of these distances would go a long way toward helping the responsible county school systems in West Virginia meet their budgets. They could also, with less concerns about the budget, employ the personnel needed in modern schools to deal with modern problems that were not present in large part three decades ago.
Activists will always attack pretty much any new development, so the fourth suggestion is not in reference to them, but to costs and aesthetics. Would it be possible in the approved path of Corridor H between Parsons and Davis to go with a less costly asphalt paved and 55 mile-per hour four lane roadway that would have a similar “parklike” appearance to the George Washington Parkway in DC?
Large trucks could still use the roadway, but less taxpayer dollars would go into building it, one would think. If done well, the road could be a tourist attraction in itself, also.
Fifth, and this would certainly work, take the basics of cybersecurity and create a sports style varsity competition for high school students. Team sports feature attacks and defenses. Each side has its own skillsets, strategies, and objectives.
One could certainly take the real world skills and challenges of cybersecurity and master them through competition between different schools. Organize the same as any other sport, including regionals and a state tournament. Experts say that the cybersecurity field continues to need more and more personnel as threats multiply globally.
If done right, varsity cybersecurity “players” could graduate from high school with industry certifications. Nothing builds better than competition. High school participants in Skills USA, DECA, Future Farmers of America, Moorefield’s top tier and nationally recognized robotics teams have shown that workforce and career skill competitions can highly motivate young people to go farther.
