Congratulations to last year’s Davie County high school graduates for improving the county’s average SAT score by 10 points. Most of North Carolina and the country lost ground.  Even better, Davie students improved their scores while significantly increasing the numbers taking the test.
Davie County students scored 1041 on the math and verbal sections of the test, easily the best among its neighbors. Surrounding counties had mixed results: Forsyth, 1006 (up seven); Davidson, 1013 (up 15); Rowan, 949 (down 20); Iredell, 1035 (up nine); and Yadkin, 996 (up 10).
The state average was 997; United States, 1010.
Davie students have been on a roll. The dropout rate has fallen to the lowest rate ever. The SAT scores approach Davie’s high water mark of 1064 two years ago. The numbers taking the test climbed to 235 — 59 percent of the class — up from 170 last year.
We can’t report, however, that their parents and adults have come to some pleasant resolution on the status of the high school’s facilities. While students continue to give us a wonderful return on taxpayer investment, adults keep failing them.
Last spring, two county commissioners — 40 percent of the board — voted to strip the school system of $2 million of funding.
That’s scary stuff. We have elected leaders who would lead a punitive raid to hijack our education system.
Thank goodness the students haven’t taken a lesson from the adults’ playbook and dithered away their time in school in the same manner adults have stalled and fought and refused to face our obligation to provide a proper environment for learning.
Davie continues to be held hostage by political bullies who refuse to yield and insist they know more than the superintendent. They prefer their own myopic formulas to those of certified experts.
Happily, while grumpy old men continue their turf wars, our students are getting a good education, albeit in trailers and old facilities. Our long-suffering faculty is doing a remarkable job under difficult conditions. Let’s hope this problem doesn’t continue for another decade.
The next generation deserves better.

Kudzu Bugs Invade
North Carolina

On my shirtsleeve a few weeks ago I noticed a small brown bug — a kudzu bug. I could identify it because early last spring some beach communities had swarms of the Asian interlopers, and newspaper stories tried to settle the fears of beach residents about this new invader.
Now the bug is working its way inland … with friends
The kudzu bug is ladybug-sized but solid brown and is making its way across the state. It was first spotted in North Carolina in …