Education Pays, but it's Damn Expensive

The academy was not the only educational institution to open in the fall.

Will realized a long time ago that education for all was not only a good slogan but a financial imperative.

All of Will's consumer research pointed to literate people earning more money. The more they learn, the more they earn. The more educated a person was the more they bought, and invest in his properties.

Will knew causation didn't always lead to correlation, however, in this case, there was a relationship between literary and earning.

Gadreel had a flat income tax and sale taxes. Will knew if he wanted to improve his bottom line, he'd have to push education reforms.

But the problem with education was that it was too expensive. Will ran the numbers time and time again, and the more he ran the numbers the more his heart sank.

Education was just too damn expensive early on, but in the future, Will knew it would pay dividends.

According to Kurosawa's projections, public schoolhouses would cost millions in gold. Why was the cost so high? First, schools would require updating the zoning laws, deconstructing houses, moving families, and then constructing the school.

While most of the property was owned by the city, wealthy nobles and merchants could buy the property. This meant some properties would have to be bought from speculators. Kurosawa and Will were not looking forward to negotiating the return of private property to the city.

The second reason was the cost of educators. In this medieval period, most educators taught noble or wealthy merchant children. Since most students were homeschooled by an academy scholar or governess, their fees did not come cheap.

Moreover, there was a shortage of educators in the Gadreel. That meant Kurosawa would have to incentivize educators across Fermion and Albania to work in Gadreel. Once again, an expensive undertaking.

Third, the build cost would be immense. Will no longer constructed buildings, if he did, he'd hurt the construction economy. Based on a 10-year projection, they need to build twelve K-8 schools. Each school would cost approximately 100,000 gold a year. That was a new 1.2 million gold expense on the city budget.

To offset the price, Kurosawa and Will relied on private-public partnerships, like they had when they built a convention center two years ago. Immediately several businesses agreed to help shoulder the cost of construction, in return for a lower tax rate over 10 years. On the other hand, several local shop owners combine their funds to sponsor various locations within the school.

To encourage private partnership, Kurosawa and Will created a plaque outside each school, which listed the names of contributors. In many working-class neighborhoods, this was the best advertising space a local merchant could buy.

After the wedding, Will ordered the construction of the schoolhouses. It had taken five years, but finally, all the schools were complete.

There was one school constructed in the noble district, four in the middle-income districts and five in the working-class districts, and two near the farms.

The reason why Will built K-8 schools, was because students became adults at age 13 which equaled their 8th year of education. Fortunate students would graduate K-8 and transition to an academy.

In addition to public-private partnerships, Will also auctioned off low-interest municipal bonds. This way instead of the city removing a huge sum of money from the treasury at one time, the government could pay back the bonds over time.

For five years, construction teams across the city worked overtime to have the schools built for fall. To create continuity, Will wanted the academy and the schools to share the same start and end dates.

To speed up construction, and out of boredom, Will decided to design and build the school in the noble district where his children would eventually attend. Plus, he wanted to use his magic.

Will found a site next to the gate that separated the noble district from his estate. It was a perfect site with a couple of empty hectares.

Instead of using the traditional layout, Kurosawa gave to the construction crew, Will decided his school would be a campus. Will would construct a mini academy, which resembled a snail's spiral shell.

Will like the idea of a whimsical building, which had an enclosed periphery for safety, but an open interior for the playground, a courtyard, and a youth football pitch. Football had yet to be invented, but Will missed sports.

Will cast [earth wall] and spread the buildings along the roads and shaped a continuous spiral line.

The three-story building had a roof terrace that overlooked the noble district and gave an iconic element to the school.

The enclosed interior had an amphitheater, courtyards, swings, slide, teeter-totter, and grass soccer pitch. There was ample space for outdoor activities.

Will built the courtyards with an alternation of scale and dimension rather than a traditional layout, hopefully creating a strong sense of merriment.

This was a school where his children could learn and play. As Will used his magic, he envisioned how Camille and Edward would use the space.

Returning to the present, when Kurosawa announced, children were mandated to attend school this fall parents and children were equally excited and hesitant.

Children from poor families were nervous about, how their children might be treated in such a luxurious building. In the past, education was only for the rich.

However, not all parents were happy. Farmers were not happy to send their children to school, because it meant losing farmhands. In this medieval era, children were free labor, especially on farms.

To appease the farmers, Kurosawa announced the Agriculture and Warrior College would help with the harvest as a part of their training.

The biggest fear among commoner families was the worry that Will would charge them for their children attending school. Some families even secretly began saving, waiting for the tuition bill to arrive. Only after the first month, did families relax when no bill arrived.

However, Will was not only concerned with education for youth but also adults. The adult literacy rate was less than 10%.

To rectify the problem, Will heavily incentivized adult education. Adults who finished basic education (e.g., 5th grade) received a 10 year, 10% discount on their rent, plus they received the 10% back as a cash gift. Kurosawa marketed it as the 10x10x10 promotion.

For example, if a person finished basic education their 50 copper a month rent, was reduced to 45 coppers, and they would receive a one-time cash gift of 5 copper coins.

The adult commoners took to the promotion like fish on bait. Soon adults enrolled in night school, while their children attended school during the day.

Will's education policy once again sent a flood of commoners to Gadreel. Only in Gadreel could a commoner's children have a chance to attend school and then advance to an academy.

As commoners migrated to Gadreel in droves, lords from Fermion and Albania began to complain. How could the other lords compete against Will? His territory had amenities that existed nowhere else. Even Jason had a difficult time holding onto his commoners.

To help Jason, Will funded a K-8 school in the barony, as well as gave the barony residents priority enrollment at Valley A&M Academy.

To Jason's amazement, his emigration problem turned into an immigration problem as new citizens flocked to the barony.

Jason struggled to deal with the influx of commoners who preferred to live in a small town but still wanted the amenities.

This only caused the other lords to be more furious. In the past, lords were not focused on keeping commoners. In the past, there were more commoners than jobs available. Suddenly, that had flipped.

Some lords were even considering paying commoners to stay. To appease the other lords, King Remus ordered the army to block the road into Friendship Valley. However, the only thing the checkpoint did was send migrants around on a more dangerous route.

However, Fermion lords were not the only ones furious with him, Will received a strongly worded letter from the Albanian City Lord of Korce and other Albanian northern lords.

The stream of commoners from entering the valley was a sight to behold. The line of migrates walking to Gadreel stretched for kilometers.

While Duke vont Khan did apologize on their behalf, but he also used the military to close the border to migrates.

At both ends of the valley, traders had their wagons inspected for stowaways. Numerous times, the Fermion and Albanian military caught traders trying to smuggle migrants into Friendship Valley.

Will shook his head in disgust. Trade was very profitable, but that didn't mean there weren't consequences. All the military checkpoints slowed down the traders. Causing delays in supply chains.

While trade often disperses people and local economies. Like in life, there are winners and losers. The lords around Gadreel did not like being on the losing end.