Everything in the end all comes down to money. Everything costs money, whether it be a noble project or a greedy scheme. It is this, “nothing comes free,” factor that makes the jobs of our local politicians so difficult. They passionately see projects within our community and want to help. They want to beautify, help non-profits and grow our economic development opportunities.

This is all very overwhelming when sitting down and distributing funds. But when we as a community preach that education should be the focus of our time, effort and funds because of its importance, we are proud to be in a community that backs that up.

Selma Mayor George Evans kicked off the second year of a program that offers more than just scholarships to area students — it offers them inspiration. The Mayor’s Inspirational Achievers Award program started the year off with a meeting between administrators and those in the mayor’s office.

The group discussed fair ways to evaluate the achievements of students and their grades as well as Evans announced it was his goal to give out three scholarships to graduating seniors, $1,000 each.

Evans also said he hoped to give out prizes at the banquet for the program in May to give students an incentive to apply.

The program does something for all ages as well. The program awards children in each grade a medallion and certificate for their achievement. And though it may sound small, organizer Dale Bryant told the group, the children had huge smiles and grins on their faces when they were awarded the medallions.

We cannot encourage area students enough to apply for these awards prior to April. Whether a child gets a medallion, a Kindle Fire, an iPad mini or a scholarship to college — the way to encourage education is to reward those who take it seriously.

Anytime the local government can spotlight children who are achieving and overachieving in education we cannot applaud them enough for doing so.

We thank the mayor’s office and the local government for putting an emphasis on education.