No one who is minimally conscious will dispute that most if not all of the public schools in Robeson County are old, crowded, in progressive states of disrepair, and even dangerous, both from obvious threats and others that lurk, including mold that a paint job hides but doesn’t fix.

And now we have a private firm offering to build us 14 shiny new schools, renovate five others, and achieve all of this at a savings to taxpayers — a promise that at first blush appears to survive the numbers test, at least according to finance officers with the county and school system.

And how was the firm greeted last week? Rudely from those who attended a meeting that was designed to introduce the plan not only to the public, but school board members and county commissioners who we assure you don’t know what’s in it.

The meeting continues tomorrow, and we hope folks are better behaved. Our advice is to pay attention, politely ask good questions, and try to understand the plan — and recall that those of us in the South are noted for our hospitality.

This newspaper is far from endorsing the plan, but it’s the best one we have heard as it’s the only one. We believe this county’s 24,000 students deserve better halls in which to learn, and there is ample evidence that enhancing a school’s environment makes easier the jobs of teaching and learning. Given how this county’s students are at the wrong end of most lists that measure academic achievement, this benefit should not be easily dismissed.

We are impressed as well when someone like Dr. Robin Cummings, the chancellor at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke and someone who has benefited mightily from an education, puts his weight behind the proposal as he did with an opinion piece published in this newspaper on Friday.

While we don’t fully understand the plan, both what it entails and how it would be paid for, there are some certainties: There is no way that this county’s taxpayers can pay for the construction of 30 to 40 new schools even if spaced over decades. Our math says a single school built at the cost of $30 million would mean a hike in the tax rate of about 5 cents, which is prohibitive.

The days of a school in every neighborhood are coming to an end — and turf battles, while expected, should not be what matters going forward.

So the choices are this plan, a better one that is yet to be unveiled, or to continue to send our children to schools that are only going to get older, more crowded and in further states of disrepair —and continue to bleed our taxpayers with money for patchwork that could be better spent educating.

The Raleigh firm, sfL+a Architects, says it can build the schools under a lease-purchase agreement that will eventually save the county money, mostly through cost reductions associated with recurring maintenance costs of existing schools, like leaky roofs, heating and air conditioning breakdowns and even mold. In the short term, the county might could dip into its $30 million savings account to prevent any tax increase and, if projections are correct, in a decade the annual cost in savings would pay the bill.

It should be noted that while sfL+a Architects stands to profit, there is no incentive for the firm to build schools this county eventually can’t pay for.

We accept that this newspaper has a responsibility to do a good job of distilling the plan down so that our readers better understand it, primarily its cost, how it will be paid for, and where the schools will be located. So we will be there on Monday night with our listening ears on.

We hope residents who attend do the same.