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.

The ugly American demeanor

Count me as among those who know nothing about the thoughts and philosophy of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Count me among those who have no opinion regarding his wisdom or statesmanship. Count me among those who would never go to his country, not ever. And count me among those who don't give a damn about his welfare in the least.

Count me among those who saw him open a national sore for the world to see when he visited Columbia University.

Columbia's president introduced this man - the president of a powerful country - by calling him names and insulting him. Excuse this educator, we say, he was covering his butt to an angry audience for giving an enemy of Washington and Israel a podium.

I don't think it was Ahmadinejad's intent and I don't think he could have engineered it had he tried, but in his role as sitting duck for Columbia University's president, and in his role of goon for media of New York City and the nation, he laid bare to the world the ugly, uncivil side of America.

Isn't our world image bad enough, and how did we get like this?

Greed and the Big 10

"What fascinates me is the sheer gall of an organization that makes its living off the free labor of college students and which already makes quadzillions of dollars from lucrative bowl games and merchandising and ridiculous ticket prices, and yet now has the chutzpah to say to Time Warner: 'Cough up $1.10 per subscriber every month and we'll let you broadcast games' ... It's emblematic of the way things are: no matter how much money is raked in it's never enough, no matter how loyal your customers you'll still find a way to screw them given half a chance, and one thin, red dime can never be left on the table."

Well-said, Tim Smith of Hilliard, who was writing in the Sunday Dispatch to the editor of the sports section. The headline for this column was: Big Ten Network lightning rod for seething OSU fans.

None of this is news to OSU football fans or anyone who's followed the incredibly greedy practices of this state-supported university. I mentioned it briefly 9/4/07 under the title "OSU - It's all about greed"

Where are the limits to these practices? Who controls the money-changers at our state's universities? Where are Ohio legislators and what are they doing about runaway enrichment of university administrators and sports programs? Or is it the other way: do the money-changers in fact control the state legislators? And where's Jay Hottinger when you need him?

OSU - It's all about greed

An article in yesterday's Dispatch hinted at the greed which has become all-pervasive in higher education, and particularly at Ohio State University. It described a $2-million make-over to OSU President Gordon Gee's Bexley home, courtesty of the university foundation.

One of the readers of that article said it best: "Higher education is a greedy, taxpayer subsidized business. It stopped being about education about 30 years ago when those who run the system realized they could make themselves filthy rich while maintaining a image of being "about education."

The reader might have added that this greed is exactly the reason Ohio State football fans are being short-changed on television coverage by Time Warner and the Big 10 poobahs.