A sunk cost is, in economics and rational decision-making, gone for good. Whatever I may have spent in the past is irrelevant when making informed decisions about the future. Only future costs should be weighed against future gains (or benefits).
An example would be a home builder who estimates he can sell a house for $300,000 but only spend $200,000 in land, labor, and materials. If, after starting construction and spending $50,000, the housing market collapses, and the new estimated selling price is $125,000, the builder should immediately stop work on the house. Why? Because he has $150,000 in future costs compared to a future gain of $125,000, and that’s bad business. The $50,000 he already spent is irrelevant.
Another example would be a local government body that has already incurred millions in legal costs and irreparable reputational damage in a lost cause.
All the time, energy, vitriol, and money that has already been expended should be irrelevant to the question of whether the government body should continue to waste taxpayer resources for no future benefit.
And yet, the Shenandoah County School Board appears poised to once again throw our tax dollars into a bonfire of vanity.
No one should be shocked that the current members of the Shenandoah County School Board appear ignorant of a basic economic principle. The current board members were not elected on the basis of their business acumen or success leading large organizations. Their campaigns were funded for the purpose of turning back the clock and restoring an invented tradition.
Judge Michael F. Urbanski has ordered the Shenandoah County School Board to change the names of two schools after the board restored older discriminatory names following a name change in 2020. The board has officially filed neither a request for a stay of judgment nor an appeal, but local sources indicate the board is prepared to exercise its option to appeal.
A rational decision-making process would weigh the costs and benefits of an appeal. Costs include not only the money spent for attorneys retained as the case moves to higher courts, but also the cost of the opposing attorney fees (already in the millions). Other costs include the time spent discussing this lost cause in board meetings (an opportunity cost because this time will not be spent improving our children’s educational experiences), and the reputational cost to a rural community struggling to attract investment that’s not a data center.
The benefits are nonexistent. There is no tangible or intangible benefit to this community and our students by keeping those names. Those names do not increase test scores, increase graduation rates, or increase athletic success. Those names do not generate any goodwill for our county. We do not benefit from being viewed by outsiders as at best backward rednecks and at worst active racists. Who wants to invest in an area that can only look backwards? Who wants to move here and raise a family in a school system led by those more interested in fighting culture wars instead of raising educational outcomes?
That may, however, be the point. The effort to undo the first name change by funding the campaigns of new board members who would do the bidding of their benefactors might not be completely motivated by a nostalgic view of the antebellum South or Massive Resistance. It may be that we’ve all been distracted by the loud and colorful noise surrounding the names of schools while the true purpose is to clearly and effectively communicate to those outside our county that they are not welcome.
The old men standing on top of the political and economic pyramid in Shenandoah County probably do not want new investment and new economic centers of gravity. They almost certainly do not want middle class families moving into our county with their exotic ideas about academic excellence, expanded programming, and accountability for educational leaders. They likely prefer things the way they’ve always been.
Those sentiments are not going to win any support in chambers of commerce or from the local residents who are stuck in low-paying jobs while fuel costs skyrocket. It is much more politically palatable to yell “Heritage!” or “Tradition!” than “No change!” or “Preserve the gerontocracy!”
The Shenandoah County School Board should comply with Judge Urbanski’s order and rename the schools. If they don’t, if they ignore future costs, if they burn more time and money grasping for a pyrrhic court ruling, it won’t be because of white men who fought a lost cause in the 19th century. It will be because of old white men funding a lost cause in the 21st century.
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