School Funding and Levies

I couldn't disagree more with Kelli Green who wrote this letter to the editor of the Canton Repository. In the letter, she states:

If you want the Legislature to fix school funding, the least effective way to attract attention is to vote no on a school levy.

What proof does she offer?

First, understand that a no vote on a school levy sends a loud message to the school board and the superintendent. A no vote says spend less by cutting electives, professional development, field trips, extracurricular activities, support staff, teachers, etc. It does not send any message to our elected officials.

WRONG! School board members ARE elected officials. And if you are of the opinion that the message of a "no" vote is being misunderstood, perhaps you ought to stand up and deliver the message to the elected officials making those cuts: the school boards.

We aren't the first area to be faced with levy defeat after levy defeat. The bottom line is that in rural Southern Ohio, a failed levy is the norm.

Those schools are the reason for the Ohio Supreme Court's decision. Their failed levies haven't influenced the Legislature; why should ours be any different?

A "no" vote on a levy isn't intended to influence the state legislature, but rather the school board and administrators. The idea is to get these people to get creative about reducing the costs of education. One of the first things I look for when I see a levy on an upcoming ballot is to take a look at what the administrators are making and what is in their benefit packages. More times than I can count, I have discovered absurd entitlements that would make most corporate CEOs blush.

If you have a school board that responds by cutting classes, teachers, and valuable extra-curriculars, perhaps you ought to think about electing a new school board.

Making school funding equitable is a huge task, one that our elected officials are clearly not up to. The speaker of the House, Jon Husted, is waiting for the governor to propose a plan. What is the speaker doing in the meantime to help school funding? He is finding more ways to dump millions of tax dollars into failing for-profit charter schools.

Fixing school funding is not on his agenda, and it won't be until the voters send a clear message.

Blaming Jon Husted for this is not the answer either. The Speaker is an advocate for charter school, but to classify those schools as "failures" is an ad hominum attack particularly when you consider how miserable government schools have performed. Really, this isn't a matter of money being thrown at the problem. It is a matter of the money being managed properly and spent more wisely.

How can you send a clear message to the Legislature? Write, call, e-mail or even visit your senator and representative. Then contact them again. And again. And again.

Keep in mind not their answers but their actions when it is re-election time.

Hold your administrators and school boards accountable. Competence matters at all levels of government including local.

UPDATE: I just remembered something that I wanted to add...

Ted Strickland ran all over this state screaming that he had a secret plan for funding schools. WHERE IS IT? That is the question that these newspapers ought to be asking. People like Kelli deserve an answer to the question since they believed that the Governor wasn't lying to them on the campaign trail... As usual, Democrats can take the public hook, line and sinker and nobody in the 527 media in this state will even ask him the question...