Replace Keith and stop bullying us

That Newark voters have said "no" again to their city schools is no surprise to anyone except those who masterminded an August vote at a cost of $40,000. What part of "no" didn't they understand last time? And how many more "no's" is it going to take before we see changes in ...

1 - Newark City Schools administrators and administrative techniques?

2 - City schools' bullying attitude toward the people it presumes to serve?

3 - A commitment by schools to serve its customers to the best of its ability, rather than to apply what one commenter in the Advocate called "use of threats and selective parental pain-points?"

4 - A commitment to help bring financial relief to pensioners by reducing, not increasing, property taxes?

5 - A strong and committed leadership by this community for state funding reform?

1 - There is much in the recent history of NCS about which Keith Richards is to be praised, but to little people like me he symbolizes the stuff about NCS that turns me off, and that grows progressively worse the longer he stays. This most recent fiasco - the $40,000 August tax vote - has capped it. Against this backdrop his other mistakes in community/taxpayer/parental relations add up to a conglomeration of errors he will not outlive. Cut the cord now.

A demonstration of good intentions by school board would be replace Mr. Richards with an interim person who is 1) much lower on the pay scale, 2) exceedingly charismatic, 3) in sync with the mentality of parents and taxpayers, and 4) determined to make the least painful budget adjustments, especially for the short-term.

2 - An about-face by NCS on who is supposed to be serving whom. Schools - Newark and elsewhere - have morphed into these quasi-governmental big boys for whom customer service is last on their list. Read it over and over in the Advocate comments sections; read it in Newark Tea Party Observations.

3 - Taking away bussing and hitting at school sports were, in my opinion, the most ham-handed of NCS mistakes - parental and student pain-points at their rawest, an obvious attempt to browbeat the customers into a voting frenzy. How can these customers be proud of the city schools?

4 - The property tax burden has long been excessive. It reached the breaking point when the last gold mine was extracted by taxing homeowners. What should have happened is taxation upon sales, corporate profits, and/or EARNED income. Taxes on earned income, like Newark City Income Tax (and unlike the present school tax on income) does not tax pensions. Taxation by these methods is more equitable and more likely to win voter approval, particularly from the older folks.

5 - It's time to stop whining about "state funding for education" and start demanding it. We have Jay Hottinger as a resident of Newark, one of the most influential state legislators we could hope for, particularly in the way tax money is being spent. It's time for him to be more than the poster boy for the Chamber of Commerce and start getting the school funding mess straightened out. He should also be leaning on Governor Strickland, who was elected in part on the promise to fix school funding, but has not and apparently does not intend to. Jay Hottinger needs to hear it loud and clear from Newark residents. Newark - a city buffeted by school and government ineptitude - needs to lead the way.