Word that Prince Edward County High School will be fully accredited by the Virginia Department of Education as a result of improved Standards of Learning scores is encouraging. We commend the students, parents and teachers who made it happen.

Meantime, we hope administrators and the county’s school board recognize the achievement for exactly what it is: a baby step toward the excellent quality of public education that children, parents and taxpayers in this community deserve.

Despite apparent modest gains on last spring’s SOLs, many reminders remain of how far Prince Edward Schools have to go. Just to name a couple: Administrators concede that the elementary and middle schools will miss state SOL benchmarks in reading. And Prince Edward High students’ performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, a college entrance exam, was the worst in the Heart of Virginia region last year, as reported recently by Herald reporter Italia Gregory.

To be the poorest in a region that collectively lagged the statewide average is a distinction that should trouble every stakeholder in this community. A knowledge-based economy like Prince Edward County, home to not one but two institutions of higher learning, deserves public schools that are the best in the region and among the finest in the commonwealth. Excellent schools are essential to attracting jobs and the best and brightest people to fill them.