Students in the Public Schools of Robeson County trail their peers across the state in every educational metric except one, and that is the graduation rate, where our county typically ranks around or just ahead of the state average.

So how can that be? It is because of the system’s Learning Acceleration Program, which numerous educators, current and retired, have told us is not rigorous. They say it is simply a way to hand out diplomas, ostensibly to boost resumes for “graduates” looking for a job — as well provide a false optic on the system’s graduation rate. It is a conversation for another day as to whether or not running a diploma mill actually helps or hurts the students who are rewarded for subpar work.

As part of a way forward and to address the system’s $2 million budget deficit, Superintendent Shanita Wooten included ending LAP, which she characterizes as not much more than a place for retired educators to make big bucks. It also happens to be the work of Linda Emanuel, a former schools administrator who is now on the Board of Education. Wooten said it’s elimination would save about a million dollars a year and that she had discussed with principals alternative programs to help struggling students snatch a diploma.

Wooten had other ideas, too, to deal with the deficit. Among them were closing four schools and reconfiguring grades, but six board members didn’t want to hear the plan, and on Wednesday instead voted to renew contracts for 27 employees, a very public slap in the face for Wooten.

Let’s dispense with this here: The 27 employees were not targeted because of race, but almost exactly mirrored the school system’s racial composition. They also were selected rather arbitrarily, in that they were the ones whose contracts were up, and therefore were easy marks. We know some capable educators got entangled, as well as some who really do need to go away.

So what we now have is a dispute between Wooten and a fractured school board, and the system’s dysfunctional leadership is on display perhaps like never before. Blame who you prefer, but we believe there is a pile of it so high that everyone gets a piece.

Wooten’s aggressiveness might leave the school board with no option but to take money it doesn’t have and pay another superintendent to go away.

We are more bullish now on the all of Robeson County than we have been in years, although space prevents an itemization of why. But the school system remains an anvil chained to the county’s ankle, a drag that impedes efforts to recruit industry and jobs that are so desperately needed, as well as professional people.

Regardless of what team you are cheering for, Wooten or The New Six on the school board, what has to be apparent is that the old way of doing things will no longer work, and that change must be embraced. The school system does not exist to provide jobs, but to educate to the best of its ability with the available resources, and currently the system is way overstaffed for the number of students it serves.

That does not say that Wooten’s approach to cutting staff was correct, nor does it imply the school board’s response was appropriate. There has to be a middle ground, but the system’s leadership seems unable to claim it.

We have said it before and will again, but louder. The Public Schools of Robeson County needs help from the state and there cannot be continued delay. So our call to the state Board of Education and to Superintendent Mark Johnson is to make the trip to this county and help us chart a path forward for 23,000 students whose futures — and this is not hyperbole — are swinging in the wind.

What we might need is two new teams. But for now, at least give us a referee.