The dawn of a new year always brings hope. How lost would we be without it?

So as 2019 begins its slow churn, we will offer our wish list for Robeson County, which is not comprehensive, but represents needs for this county to reinvent itself as a desirable place in which to raise a family, work and play.

— New schools: Unfortunately, for that to happen there has to be a desire to build them. We saw little of that locally when a magical plan was floated in 2016 to close 30 schools and build 14 new ones. Neither the county Board of Education nor the public embraced the plan, collectively taking the position that our grandparents’ schools are good enough for our grandchildren.

They are not. And we need to rid ourselves of the notion that our children should make do with less.

The most obvious benefit of new schools is providing 23,000-plus students a safe and vibrant environment in which to learn. Building new schools also would provide a lot of well-paying jobs as they are being built, and give us a sharp tool in the recruitment of industry.

Money, we know, is a problem, but the state has some for a start. A good step would be for our local system to gets its act together enough to apply for state money.

Absent building a bunch of schools, we have to make a priority of building a technical school. Students are trending away from college and toward getting a marketable skill more quickly and without accumulating debt. A technology school in this county could change a lot of lives for the better.

— More local money for our schools: There is a reason our county commissioners have funded our local system at the second lowest rate in the state, and that is because the public has not demanded better. A door might be opening because there appears to be a shift in power on that board, and there is also a new county manager, Kellie Blue, whose expertise is finance. Blue has the chance to make a splash by figuring this out.

The commissioners and our school board members should sit at the same table, put aside the acrimony, and figure out a way to do better for our children. While we don’t always believe that more money is the panacea for academic failure, when a system’s students are each getting about $1,000 less than their peers across the state, then that is debilitating.

— No hurricane. No explanation required.

— Less crime: This one is tricky because there are so many factors that contribute to our crime problem, including a struggling school system and its first cousin, poverty. But we begin 2019 with a new sheriff and today we get a new district attorney, and they bring fresh ideas and energy that we believe could make this county a safer place.

They can do little about the root causes of crime, but together, and with the aid of magistrates and judges, they can make those who would choose a life or crime pay a steeper price for that decision. It isn’t enough to round up and prosecute the bad guys, they also need to be sent away for a longer time.

— More jobs, and jobs that pay better: Robeson County has not been without successes in recent years when it comes to recruiting industry, with the biggest prize being Sanderson Farms’ decision to locate near St. Pauls. But our unemployment rate stubbornly hovers at about twice the state average.

Channing Jones, the county’s economic development director, might have the most important — and toughest — job in the county as he tries to convince industries of the benefits this county offers, and there are many. The county offers cheap land, the Lumber River, plenty of highway in all directions, a regional medical center, a university and community college, an airport, and a location that has a temperate climate and is an easy drive to the beach and the mountains.

Jones would be helped greatly if some of the aforementioned wishes were to come true.

With a lone exception, none of these wishes are fanciful, and indeed are within our grasp, but depend not only on genuine leadership, but on the public demanding better.

As for our hope that there be no Matthew 3.0, we will cross our fingers and send up a prayer. That is above our pay grade.