Bullies don’t stop, nor should NCS

That Newark City Schools hit back at student bullies in some classroom exercises (reported in the Advocate 1/26/10) is to be commended.

I wrote 12/3/09 that “Our village failed a child” and that it was in part the fault of schools. Now Newark City School administrators have acted to end bullying. Likely they recognize what they’ve accomplished as only the beginning. Meanwhile, lots of folks are jumping in the Advocate comments sections saying it’s not enough. I agree.

Bullying is like obesity, like tooth decay, like bad attitude, like addiction. You can’t make corrections with one talkie-talk field day. You have to fight it. You have to keep fighting it and you have to keep your guard up every single moment.

Some of the commenters indicated that the confrontation of bullies lies mostly or only with school principals, and that some principals are intimidated by parents of bullies. I suspect there is some truth in that, and if it is true, then let’s face off with those parents. Let’s hire security guards. Let’s call the police to the offices of school principals. Let’s take these parents to court. Let’s draw a line in the sand over which these parents and their kid-bullies shall not pass.

Announce that line; make it stick. That line will stand once the word gets out. Meantime, don’t stop with one talkie-talk field day. Do it regularly and encourage PTA groups (do they still have these in Newark?) to take up banderillas.

Our village should now have learned that it should never again fail one of our children. If that takes some unaccustomed toughness on our part, so be it.

Unlike Ohio senators, clowns are professionals

Before passage of the Ohio budget in late December, Senate Republicans removed from the bill a provision that would have cut legislative salaries by five percent. This is great news to tax-weary Ohioans, knowing that legislators have so favored themselves because they only make $60,584 a year for part-time jobs with full benefits.

We appreciate their exemplary performance in not only representing their own interests, but for having frittered countless opportunities to do something important - anything important - but have used their time, instead, to bash political opponents as they try to influence the next election.

Thomas Suddes, whose political commentary is reproduced in the Dispatch, wrote on 12/13/09 “The only differences between the Republican-run Ohio Senate and the Ringling Bros. circus is that the Senate doesn't charge admission (unless you lobby), and Ringling clowns are professionals.”

In this essay he reports that of the 219 Senate bills introduced in 2009 three reached the governor’s desk. “That means (a) most Senate bills are just publicity stunts ... or (b) Republican senators ... aren’t dying of overwork.” Read his essay here. I personally favor the (a) option. And the (b) option.

While the solution for school financing has never been more distant in Ohio law books, our lawmakers nevertheless reserve plenty of time to interfere with lives of constituents. Consider wine purchases and auto wipers.

They had time to protect the interests of the Ohio Wine Producers Association with a new law that limits your household to no more than 24 cases of wine in one year. To understand the details, here’s a link to the Dispatch report.

Also, Ohio’s new law that makes little people turn on their lights when they use their auto wipers went into effect recently. That should draw international ridicule for crude and disruptive government interference.

It is, of course, one of those publicity stunts, but one that backfired with people who know in their hearts they are smart enough to figure out when to turn on their lights. Just when you think government has reached the limit for stupidity, along comes something like this.

Remember, on election day, not those politicians’ deprecating proclamations; remember their performance. If your public servants haven’t been part of the solution to your problems then they are a cause of your problems. That will be the only important point of focus when you step in the voting booth.

EDIT 1/5/10
State Rep. Jay Hottinger wasn’t in the crosshairs of this essay because he isn’t a senator. He is, however, among those I’ve indirectly criticized, without naming him, for what I’ve called, politely, “deprecating proclamations.”

I’m glad he called me 1/4/10 to brief me on his position regarding the state budget and other matters. As our representative from the 71st District we should keep up on what he’s thinking and how he’s voting, but unfortunately there is no easy way to do this, given the lack of interest by the Advocate and the Dispatch.

Related to the above essay, Jay said he supports the 5% pay cut for legislators and he voted against the windshield wiper bill.

He also addressed the state of Ohio economics. Most everyone who cares knows he is a loud and frequent critic of Governor Stickland’s budget. He said this is because it allows for a $5-$8 billion short-fall in a few years.

I said, ok, what are your solutions? He rattled off several possibilities, often adding that he wasn’t sure he’d fully support each of them or some such disclaimer. But from my hasty and incomplete notes, here’s what he said:

One source of more income would be a penny added to the sales tax. That would produce a billion dollars a year, he said.

The rest of his ideas were focused on the other side of the balance sheet: savings. Here are areas he would study: 1) Reform government pensions; 2) make cost-saving corrections in the way the state bids and awards construction projects; 3) prison reforms that would provide for fewer inmates; 4) reduced reimbursement to nursing homes by Medicaid; 5) privatization of the Ohio Turnpike; 6) repeal what are or will be non-funded mandates to schools such as the proposals for a) all-day kindergarten; b) adding 20 days to the school year; c) teacher ratio of 15 students per teacher (presently it is 21-1).

Without adding my thoughts about his thoughts at this point, that’s what he said.

C-TEC’s problem is management

Both of our sons graduated from Licking County Joint Vocational School and I am forever grateful for JVS instructors’ expertise and administrators’ patience and wisdom. My boys’ aptitudes were far better fitted to tradesmanship than academics and the long-term employment outcome has been a success, so far as that training contributed.

Since then, the school has changed a lot - different administrators and a whacky new name: “Career and Technology Education Centers of Licking County.” Maybe that name has to do with marketing and prestige; it sure doesn’t tell anybody what the institution is or does.

Because I am now and forever a cheerleader for vocational education, I let slide an Advocate report on 10/25/09 that addressed some of the financial miscues that have occurred and are occurring there. In view of the most recent operating levy failure and the excessive compensation for its new superintendent, taxpayers may wish to review this report: C-TEC at critical financial juncture

The long-overdue court decision on a lawsuit by Claggett & Sons regarding construction contracts could break the C-TEC bank. Even if it doesn’t, the matter likely will prove costly to taxpayers and may be read as a signal that the school board and administrators were careless in oversight and weak in judgment when they let all this get to lawsuit status.

On 11/15/09 the Advocate editorialized that C-TEC's problems require complete review, and demonstrated bad judgment in its idea for “a new Western Licking County strategy” because folks out there are “killing C-TEC operating levies by wide margins.”

The Advocate’s solution? Cut those people out of the C-TEC district and let them get their vocational education in Columbus, which would lessen the number of anti-tax voters. Such a solution fails to acknowledge that it would also lessen the number of taxpayers supporting Licking County vocational education, requiring each property owner in the smaller district to bear even more of a school-tax burden.

Meanwhile, C-TEC’s operating funds are substantial enough to pay the new superintendent, Joyce Malainy, a $113,262 salary. There is enough in the kitty to pay her $471.93 per day between now and her Jan. 4, 2010 start date as reported by the Advocate 11/18/09 Board approves superintendent's contract

When C-TEC goes back to voters, this example of hog-trough-ery will be remembered, if only by me. Paying anyone $471.93 a day is a slap at property owners who are tired of enriching the estates of school adminstrators.

Before C-TEC returns with another request for more money, it should not be predicated on finagling the voter base by cutting off students from Western Licking County. Consider instead - simply - better management of its affairs, especially concerning the use of our tax dollars.

Our children: Too much too soon

Four major ways parents fail their children are: 1) not supervising their use of the Internet; 2) not dressing them age-appropriately; 3) letting them have cell phones; and 4) over-scheduling their lives.

In short, giving them - and pushing them toward - too much too soon.

This from talk show host Regis Philbin, reading from a survey of moms. I couldn’t agree more.

Part of that over-scheduling is the fault of government and its push toward all-day kindergarten. This shameful deprivation of a year’s worth of childhood is merely a baby-sitting service for parents and a make-work arrangement for school employees.

Academic gains from full-day kindergarten diminish quickly and tend to be reversed during elementary-school years, according to an MSN report.

A study published in the journal Child Development, quoted in an MSN essay (Pushing Kids to Be Smarter Sooner) “used data from 13,776 children who were in the kindergarten ("K") class of 1998–1999. Though the reading and math skills of full-day K students tended to improve at a faster rate compared part-day K students, their lead evaporated once kindergarten was over. The academic abilities of the part-day K students actually increased at a faster rate between the end of kindergarten and the spring of fifth grade.”

Kindergarten is among the most misguided results of letting politicians decide how to educate children. There’s money in it for teachers and there’s convenience in it for parents, but forcing structured learning too soon is self-defeating. And that’s just politicians’ and parents’ earliest methods for turning kids off to classroom-acquired knowledge; there are plenty more over the next 12 years.

With new managers, NCS will revive

Since the announced change in NCS superintendents there has been a cease-fire from critics of Newark Schools’ methods and motives. In November, voters could make it permanent.

Count me among those who intend to support the new superintendent as long as he proves worthy; also the new treasurer. I am assuming they will make wise decisions for the benefit of students, parents, and taxpayers. I am assuming they will be honest and open in all NCS affairs.

The honeymoon is on, which is a great time for the community to reflect on the rough times of the past few years. It hasn’t been pretty, it hasn’t been fun, and the schools lost a lot of goodwill and community support.

We need to reflect on it because the NCS board played a leading role in this unhappy time. They made - or supported - many unwise decisions. They seemed supremely incompetent as money managers and administrators.

The November election will open the way for voters to make corrections as they fill the positions currently held by Bline, Carr, and Ingold. As the Advocate reminded us yesterday, school board “candidates must turn in their petitions with the required number of signatures ... by 4 p.m. Aug. 20 to the Board of Elections.”

That we are not in a state of turmoil at the moment is a great advantage to our chances of finding candidates for those seats who are good managers rather than angry activists.

We need board members who are qualified as business administrators, able to manage money and spend our tax burden wisely. We need board members who will be leaders and not bobble heads for the superintendent. If we get them and if our new superintendent is the genuine article, we can look for much better times ahead: Not just a truce, but a new and welcomed beginning.

Advocate editorialist is a mental and moral underachiever

Yesterday, an Advocate editorial trumpeted the virtues of Keith Richards. It called him “a pretty good example of what's needed to get the job done,” “a wise and savvy leader, “an open and honest superintendent” who “understood the importance of accountability,” calling for “a fresh start from a leader of similar skills and focus.”

It’s painfully obvious to anyone who is still reading the Advocate that good help is pretty scarce, maybe because of layoffs or involuntary furloughs. The editorialist who wrote this is the one who deserves a permanent furlough. She is not merely lousy help, but worse, a mental and moral underachiever.

I gave Keith Richards enough grief before he decided to retire. I was willing to drop him off the list of write-worthy subjects.

I was willing to let the King Richards’ era die a peaceful death - forgetting all the things about his reign that angered taxpayers -  so that Newark could get on with a new life with a new guy.

I was willing to forget that the superintendent told the Advocate ahead of the levy vote that the money would be spent, in part, on raises for employees. This in a system where the average salary for teachers is $53,179, and there’s one employee for every 8 NCS students. Raises for these people, but not a return to full busing, though local taxpayers spend more on the superintendent’s salary than the people of Alaska pay their governor.

I was willing to forget that under Keith’s guidance NCS mustered the third worst graduation rate in Ohio and that Keith blamed Newark citizens for this.

I was willing to forget that NCS failed to admit until after the levy vote that the estimate for increased government funding is $2 million and that it still hasn’t admitted more federal stimulus funding is expected.

I was willing to forget that the school board’s “transparent” search for a new superintendent began with an executive session to talk about it.

But yesterday when the Advocate trumpeted the virtues of Keith Richards, I just had to remember all this crap. 

There is a good side: The Advocate editorialist has clearly demonstrated - in case anyone ever doubted - her lack of support for NCS pupils, parents and taxpayers, while shamelessly paying dues to the local establishment clique in partnership with Keith Richards & company.

Feedback on school suggestions

Immediately after I published my ideas on how the Ohio school system should be modernized and made efficient I e-mailed them to Ohio Senator Tim Schaffer and Ohio Representative Jay Hottinger.

Yesterday, Sen. Schaffer’s office advised me that he is sharing those ideas with the state K-12 Education work group of which he is a member.

Earlier, our Representative’s assistant told me that Mr. Hottinger would be taking a “careful look” at those ideas and will eventually respond.

I am honored and thankful that the ideas are being studied.

Ohio schools are no longer local; deal with it

Recognizing that “local” school districts are no longer local is the first step in a real fix for Ohio’s broken system. 

Schools stopped being local when the state stepped in decades ago and decreed that authentic local schools should consolidate into district-wide systems. Since then the legislature and the governor have increasingly intruded in matters for which bureaucrats have no expertise. The ability to draw votes does not an educator make.  

As the heavy hand of bureaucracy weighed ever-heavier, Ohio’s school system became one massive and inefficient conglomerate.

Thousands of expensive school employees will object, but Ohio must stop the inefficiency and massive expense of requiring each community to support “local” school districts that are no longer local. Schools of Ohio belong in a single, statewide system.

 

Imagine the cost-effectiveness if Ohio were to:

1 - Move to the state level all administrative functions that do not directly involve individual school buildings. The top local school administrators should be building principals.

2 - Move from the local level to the state level all purchasing of supplies and provision of services such as busing. Services and supplies would be provided by private companies, selected by lowest and best bids.

3 - Pay school employees throughout Ohio the same, with variance according to the cost of living in each community.

4 - Remove state interference from the art and science of teaching. Let teachers take over that responsibility again, but provide for ways to weed out incompetent teachers and financially reward the better ones according to a statewide measure. All schools would teach the same classroom subjects and offer the same extra-curriulars, as mandated by a commission of educational experts.

Such a system could be employed to relieve the unfair burden on property owners, eliminate the expense and frustration of levy balloting, reclaim from labor unions their stranglehold on public welfare, save vast sums on school administrative functions and purchase of services and supplies, improve classroom performance, and make educational opportunities and advantages equal for every student, every teacher, every community.

NCS levy signals call to arms

Anyone who considers the passage of the $5.9-million-per-year levy a sign that the community is poised to kiss and make up with the Newark City Schools should go read the outpouring of rage in comments to the Advocate on-line news report.

The NCS tax take has grown by $230 a year per $100,000 value. That’s added to the $892 per year already in place, plus a 1 percent income tax, plus state and federal taxes giving Keith & Company a total of $12,693 per student, per year, plus an estimated 9.3% increase in state and federal aid over the next two years. 

Still NCS will not have enough, they say, to fully bus students, or fully fund the extras for students, but they do anticipate having enough for staff raises which are needed because the NCS classroom teachers’ average salary is only $55,331 for nine months’ work before benefits - and NCS has only one employee for every 4.9 students, and the superintendent makes more than the governor of Alaska.

That Keith & Company strategized a winning shell game on property owners comes as a call to arms. Sitting in front of a computer screen screaming insults back and forth may be therapeutic, but it’s a lousy solution. 

What has to happen next is state intervention into the rape of property owners. It has to happen before Keith & Company come back to rape again, and they will because it’s never enough no matter how much it is.

There are three people who are responsible for doing this, but who won’t do anything meaningful for property owners unless they are made to do it. One is State Representative Jay Hottinger, another is State Senator Tim Schaffer and the third is Governor Ted Strickland.

Jay Hottinger has practically grown to adulthood as our link to state government. Because of that, I think he is as responsible as any member of government for schools’ rape and re-raping of property owners in Newark, Licking County, and Ohio.

So here’s a suggestion for you guys sitting there moaning about having to pay yet another $5.9 million each year on top of an already-excessive tax bill:

Call Jay Hottinger’s office - 614/466-1482 - and ask him precisely what he’s going to do to solve the problem. If you don’t understand his answer, ask again. 

Then call Senator Schaffer at 614/466-5838 and ask him the same thing. Ask the same question as many times as it takes until you understand it.

Then call Governor Strickland at the constituent helpline 614/644-4357 and ask him what he’s going to do to solve the problem. Make sure you understand exactly what he intends to do before you hang up.

When you have done so, please leave a comment here about your experience. The number and kind of comments received will indicate how serious you are about dealing with the problem, rather than whining about it.

NCS, hire someone who will spend wisely

Just when I get the notion that the Advocate is half-way concerned about the condition of taxpayers, along it comes with another editorial right out of the local chamber of commerce play book (Support Newark levy now and in May).

Property owners were counseled to spend 7.5 additional mills because this would somehow "restore our pride in Newark."

The Advocate's bongo player forgot to mention that Governor Stickland's plan for Ohio schools would send a few more million tax dollars to NCS and federal stimulus money, some of which is for schools, is in the pipeline.

The Advocate failed to justify the fact that NCS is sucking from our property taxes 69%. This compares to Newark city government, 9%; Licking County government, 7%; JVS, 6%; and 9% total for Senior Citizens, Children Services, Mental Retardation, and Mental Health levies.

The Advocate editorialist failed to ask what has gone wrong in this community that schools should operate on such a disproportionate budget. Never mind how important are our kids. Just what ask what is causing this.

Well, for one thing the superintendent is making more than twice as much as the city mayor, figuring benefits. That, obvious to everyone except school administrators, is a travesty in use of public money.

As I pointed out 11/12/08, "The Newark median earnings for men is $32,542/yr and for women $24,868. Median-wise they have a $566/mo mortgage payment, plus taxes and insurance. The average property tax in Newark is, according to Rates.Banks.com, already $1,321.539/yr, and Keith Richards - making $201,433 a year with 30 days vacation - is asking Average Joe go out to dinner one time fewer each month so he can pay more in property taxes "for the sake of the kids."

Not only did the Advocate fail to get into that, but it also failed to mention that NCS administrators added 83 employees to the teaching staff between 2006 and 2007, resulting in a pupil teacher ratio of 12.79. Am I the only one in town who thinks this might be excessive? Or is this perhaps one factor in the chain of levy failures?

Forgotten too was the fact that Newark City Schools will pay $4.37 million dollars this year in interest on debts totaling $109,750,905 because voters were boondoggled with a lot of construction and renovations that might better have been spread out in a long-term plan. Taxpayers are staring down the barrel of $109.7 million debt to pay for Richards' Folly over the next 25 years, even if during that time they never spend another nickel on construction or renovation.

These are the kinds of decisions that have been made by Superintendent Richards, and taxpayers are being asked to bail him out with 7.5 mills added to the 69% of our property tax bills. And don't forget the wage earners and pensioners who are donating part of their income to keep NCS afloat.

Advocate, don't come at taxpayers like we're a bunch of child abusers and ne'er-do-wells because we have said enough is enough; we're spending all we're going to spend on the lavish lifestyle of NCS. The programs that are being cut and should be cut are programs that never should have been started in the first place.

It's past time for the Advocate and all the other accusers to admit that what NCS needs, instead of more money, is someone at the top who can be trusted to spend it wisely. We need a superintendent less versed on bullying and boondoggling. We need a superintendent who can take the money we're sending to NCS and use it to get the job done.

Why did we let schools get so fat?

School systems - as with governments - have for many years sucked more and more taxes and converted them to more (and evermore cushy) jobs, thanks to greedy unions and to accommodating administrators and to a slumbering public. The process is epitomized in the $200,000+ a year compensation of the once-retired but now re-employed NCS superintendent.

That compensation is stratospheric - more than twice that of the mayor of Newark - and symbolic of the waste of public money which is at the root of public anger toward school administrators.

The "more taxes for the kids" song doesn't play anymore. The reason is that the public is no longer slumbering and leaving their voting responsibilities up to parents of students. The public has recognized that the money isn't for the kids; it's for the accumulated and ever-growing fat content of Newark City Schools. The public has at last demanded a reckoning.

The public wants a much better education for the kids at a much lower cost. The public wants reduction in frills and the people being paid to provide those frills. The public wants reasonable salaries paid to competent and necessary educators. The public also wants to see teachers turned loose from the micro-management of bureaucrats - federal, state, and local - so that they might again teach as individuals serving individual kids.

The public does not want to pay for baby-sitting services, all-day kindergarten, for example. The public does not want to pay for extra-curricular and/or social events and the tax-paid personnel to provide them nor does it need sports programs designed to make every kid a pro player. The public does not want to pay for any activity that could be and should be supported privately, if they are indeed worth supporting at all.

The answer to more taxes is "no." School costs have reached the stratosphere and the public expects - is demanding - that those costs come back to earth.

And if that implies, as the lead paragraph on the Advocate's recent report about cutting back (What would 'state-minimum' school look like?) says: "It's a high school that offers just two years of foreign language; a middle school with larger class sizes; an elementary school without separate art or music teachers," well then, gee whiz, why did we ever start having that stuff to begin with?

Just cut the fat and stop whining. Start with the $200,000 superintendent.

My dad never had a new car

When I was in school, teachers didn't make as much as common laborers. They taught because they loved to teach. That, and the fact that paychecks were regular and could be counted on.

Dad, who started teaching grade schoolers as a recent college graduate, never made much money even when he became superintendent of The Plains Schools (just north of Athens, OH). He often mentioned that fact, and always added "but we never missed a meal." That was an accomplishment some families in our coal-mining community couldn't claim.

We lived close to the bone, as they say, never wasting a scrap of food, never throwing away any item that one day might be used again - a habit I maintain to this day. Dad's one extravagance was traveling, for which used cars served him well. I don't think he ever bought a new car.

Only once in his career did he veer from leadership of the community schools, and that was when he taught Industrial Arts a few years at Ohio University. He didn't like it and so returned to The Plains where he worked until retirement after a 50-year-long career.

The next year, Dad was called out of retirement and spent a year or so as interim superintendent of the newly consolidated Athens City Schools until a permanent leader could be found. But he was privately very critical of the state's meddling and consolidation of area community schools. It seemed he could foresee what was going to happen to modern education because of it.

After that, Dad worked several more years as an observer/teacher of student-teachers at OU. He finally hung it up after 65 years as an educator, but still traveled, painted his house when he was in his 80's, and kept nourishing his life-long interest in shooting snapshots.

Throughout his career, Dad was the go-to guy for whatever community cause came along because his motives were pure and people trusted him. He led the Athens County War Bond drive during WWII. One of his more memorable projects was his determination to see sidewalks installed for students walking to school. He almost single-handedly promoted, collected quarters and dimes for, and facilitated their construction.

He collected lots of accolades, as might be expected. A plaque honoring that career is showcased at The Plains elementary school, and the alumni created - and still annually award - the Herman Humphrey Scholarship. But the honor I've been most impressed by was that he never in all his years in education was turned down by voters for a levy request.

Times change and education isn't what it used to be.

Remove the tools for inappropriate behavior

It may have been only inappropriate behavior, but the student who recently distributed nude photos of herself via cell phone has called into question the Ohio law under which she was threatened as a sex predator, which is a good thing.

Still, what she did - and what lots of other kids are probably doing - is inappropriate behavior made possible by having access to the right tools.

So why are today's children permitted to have cell phones anyway? Particularly, why do they have them at school?

But if cell phones open doors to inappropriate behavior, what about home computers? How do you solve that one?

Well, what you do is put the kid's home computer in the living room or kitchen with the monitor in plain view to the rest of the family.

Another major facilitator of inappropriate behavior is the automobile. I had three children and the oldest one taught me about that at age 16. The second two did not get licenses until they were almost 18, proving it can be done.

Parents who know what their kids are doing - and with which tools - can head off much of their inappropriate behavior, even if it requires constant attention and lots of effort.

Howard Hill is a serious contender

With the pot boiling over the sucker punch delivered to voters by Newark School District in the recent election, this is a good time to reflect on the candidacy for the Ohio legislature by Howard Hill.

He promises to make educational funding a priority, if elected, and work toward relief from "constant taxation and request of levies from the schools," while recognizing the state's unfunded mandates to schools are part of the problem, as I reported 2/8/08.

In a recent news release, Howard has pledged that he would use all "campaign donations for purely campaign-related expenses." This is his response to "recently publicized use of campaign dollars to purchase OSU football tickets, meals, gas, automobiles, tickets to cultural events, and even a tuxedo!”

He said "although these people’s actions were legal, I do not believe that they were an ethical use of campaign funds ..."

I really like his campaign motto: "common people putting forth uncommon effort in order to do public good." There never was a time when that's needed more than it is today.

State supervision of Newark Schools? Bring it on

Another scare tactic by Newark Schools may have backfired. A state school funding mouthpiece was invited to a recent board meeting with the announcement that if Newark voters don't fork over more money, our school system could be placed under state watchdogs and "they may force you to go in directions you did not want to go into.”

Since we're already going in directions we did not want to go into - namely the schools outspending their income - maybe a state takeover is exactly what we need to have happen. Some folks who commented on the Advocate report (Newark school board hopes to avoid financial emergency - 6/10/08) think so.

This is the worst economic time in recent memory for the schools to try to push property owners into a bigger tax bite with a sneaky (August) and expensive ($40,000) vote on 9.5-mill additional property tax. But that doesn't matter. Their intent is to shaft taxpayers with an off-election, hoping most voters will be too lazy or otherwise occupied to show up at the polls. This will allow the faithful few cadre of parents, teachers and employees to call the shot.

From the howls in the comments column every time the Advocate gives notice about Newark Schools finances, I think property owners may decide to get off their hiney-hoos and go vote.

As for state supervision, as for cutting back to state minimums, bring it on. That is exactly what we need just now.

That would send the strongest kind of a vote of no confidence in what many of us see as a lousy school system with lousy administration doing a lousy job of educating students and especially a lousy job of working within a reasonable budget.

I would equate a negative vote on this tax hike as a clear message that changes are needed, starting at the top. And if very many others see it that way, this latest threat of state takeover will have been a supreme backfire.

Newark School administrators: You don't have to trick us with an August vote

It must seem to regular readers of these Observations that I am dead-set against any new tax. I am not. I am dead-set against the chicanery used by government and schools to get income by tricking voters or otherwise denying them the right to vote on tax matters.

Classic case of this was the sales-tax increase by County Commissioners Tim Bubb and Doug Smith. They simply refused to hear voters asking to have a voice in the matter.

City officials regularly ignore the wishes of the majority in order to avoid the majority opinion on tax issues, most recently the decision by council to skim off another $10 per auto license plate sale, in spite of the fact that voters earlier had sent a clear message of their disapproval.

No sooner did taxpayers get that jammed into their orifice than the Newark School District board sends notice it might attempt to end-run voters in an August repeat of the failed tax-levy request, thinking that the majority of what few voters might show up for such an election will be parents and teachers, thus giving the majority of people who will have to pay for it yet another shafting.

This special election could cost the school district as much as $40,000 to produce, according to the Advocate report. That same $40,000 used for the good of the people would provide many miles of school bussing the district claimed it can't afford.

For people who are supposed to be smart enough to oversee the community's main educational factory, they don't have much going for them.

Worse, they see their constituency as one dumb, numb, mass of people too helpless and worthless to defend against another stuffing by the school board intelligentsia. That is the theory on which consideration of an August tax vote is predicated.

The news for these "public servants" is that there are many folks just like me, thousands maybe.

And what we expect from you is for you to convince us of a two things before you come to us for more money.

First is that you are wisely spending the money you have, that you are not wasting it on high-priced and useless administrators and employee wages and benefits that are out of line with what other people make;

and second that after you have cleaned house and eliminated all the useless people and programs you have acquired over the years that you need more of our money to educate (not entertain and not babysit) our children.

When you get that done, you won't have to try to trick us with an August vote.

Advocate promotes racial victimization mentality

Advocate readers got a textbook-case view of what keeps local racism alive, if indeed it is. Two reports in recent days created the impression that minorities are being treated unfairly in the hiring practices of local schools and governments.

One, entitled School districts struggle to attract minority applicants, failed to explain why they should want to do this, or whether anybody saw this as a problem.

The other was entitled Some wonder why number of minority government employees isn't higher but failed to explain exactly who wondered and why.

So let me guess. It was an Advocate reporter, editor, or administrator who wondered. That person is a racist.

The resulting articles were unnecessary waste of news-page space, as well as reporters' and readers' time. Worse, they promoted, if only by implication, the racial victimization mentality that has long been encouraged by mainstream media.

It is past time when people might be able to stop noticing skin color, if only the government and the media would shut up about it.

Zack Space is doing good stuff for us in Congress

Zack Space has taken a couple hits in this journal, but I believe it to be the fault of blundering from inexperience, rather than evil intent.

Fact is, I still like him very much and he's doing good stuff as our representative from the 18th District to the U.S. House of Representatives. In a recent e-mail to constituents, he told about some of his recent work:

He introduced, and the House passed, legislation "to reward teachers who generously purchase school supplies out of their own pocket, and to help students meet the skyrocketing cost of tuition. Congress has also passed legislation that will make sure that our servicemen and servicewomen – those who have sacrificed so much in defense of our nation and our freedom – will not suffer a ridiculous tax hit for receiving combat pay. Finally, the House passed my initiative to make sure working families caught up in the recent foreclosure crisis are not subject to a devastating 'phantom tax.'"

To stop the IRS from unfairly taxing Ohio families Zack introduced a bill to severely cut the foreclosure tax being levied on families devastated by a mortgage crisis. He explained it like this:

"The IRS creates 'phantom income' for families going through foreclosure by counting forgiven debt as income and taxing them on it," Zack said. “The IRS must stop adding insult to injury when American families are in financial trouble." This bill recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is headed to the Senate.

To honor veterans and service members, Zack "introduced a bill to help service members qualify for tax credits and assist veterans to purchase homes. This bill allows service members to exclude combat pay from their income taxes, making many eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit. The House has passed this bill.

“Those in uniform have made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our nation, it’s time America gives something back,” Space said.

To reduce the soaring costs of education, Zack's "legislation to extend key tax relief provisions before they expire has passed the House." The bill extends deductions for tuition costs for higher education; for teachers for the school supplies they purchase out of pocket; for the contribution of books to public schools.

Zack also introduced a bill to extend for four years the enhanced charitable deduction for contributions to food banks. This, too, has passed the House.

“If a company has food available and there are people in need, why not provide a financial incentive for the company to help? Not only will businesses get tax breaks, but our charities get the supplies they need,” Zack said.

Take a look at what you've done to public education

Nowhere is there a finer showcase for the depths to which public education has fallen than the Granville-Schools/Newark-Schools/Kraner-development argument about profits.

Money drives it. Who profits by how much is the point at issue.

There was a time - and I was fortunate enough to be a student back then - when teachers taught because they didn't mind being underpaid since they believed in the nobility of their mission. School administrators were judged on how well they could pinch pennies, not on the skill with which they milk taxpayers.

That today's schools would deal in students as though they are cattle going to market - as though they have price stickers attached to them - is simply incredible.

Educators - teachers, administrators, boards of education, state bureaucrats, legislators, college presidents and boards of trustees - should step back and observe the depths to which they've drug public education by focusing on its profitability.

Take a good look, and be ashamed.

Ohio must limit school spending

The Advocate yesterday wrote in the editorial column about a plan by an Ohio legislator in ensure increased spending on education.

Senator Schuring of Stark County would use fixed percentages from certain revenue sources. As these revenues increase, so would the amount of money going to schools. The Advocate likes the idea, as do I.

But the Advocate implies that this plan will relieve the property tax burden and the need for schools to sell their levies to voters.

I guarantee it will not. School administrator mentality doesn't work that way. When schools, like government itself, get more money they will spend it and want even more. More money coming from the state won't stop nor slow levies, not until there is a mandate to do so: a law that sets forth spending restrictions and caps on property taxes.

Such a mandate should become part of any new tax plan benefiting schools. Otherwise, nothing will change; just more and more from taxpayers to schools.