To the Editors:
If you care about the education of the next generation of Ohioans, I beg you to re-elect Governor Richard Celeste. The media have reduced the gubernatorial contest to two non-issues: age and corruption. As a ten-year veteran of the Cincinnati public schools, I know there is a much more important point on which to judge the candidates: their support, or lack of same, for their constitutionally-mandated responsibility of providing a sound educational system. On this front, which should be paramount in today's highly competitive world, there is no choice.
Governor Celeste put our money where former Governor Rhodes' mouth was. Under the latter's leadership we were the laughing- stock of the nation, with his response to the crisis caused by the inability of local property taxes to keep apace with school needs. One law was passed requiring school systems to live within their inadequate budgets or close down, while another absurdly demanded that these same bankrupt systems borrow money from the state at high interest to stay open.
Certainly, just as in the political contest, the issue is more complicated than can be addressed in one letter. Still, having lived through the constant anxiety of trying to maintain quality educational programs in the face of Rhodes' inadequate support, I again beg the citizens of Ohio to reward with your votes the man who saved your school systems and the future of this great state. Please, re-elect Governor Richard Celeste.
Sincerely,
Barbara V. Smith
To the Editors:
If you care about the education of the next generation of Cincinnatians, I beg you to re-elect Governor Richard Celeste. Certainly, improvements in the Cincinnati schools are due to a complicated web of factors and people. Without denigrating the other dedicated workers, I must encourage people who are sitting on the fence to get out and vote for the best friend to Ohio schools in ten years.
From the time I began teaching in 1974, Cincinnati schools were locked in a downward spiral caused in large part by the inability of the citizenry to sufficiently raise property taxes. Under former Governor Rhodes, state government refused to shoulder its constitutional role of providing a sound educational system for Ohioans. Instead, laws were passed that made us the laughingstock of the nation. One required school systems to live within their inadequate budgets or close down. Absurdly, another forced these same bankrupt systems to borrow from the state at high interest in order to stay open.
Governor Celeste's increases in state aid have helped public-spirited Cincinnatians rally the community to its own share of support for education, and the improved schools are easy to see. Please reward him with your votes in November.
The statewide media have reduced this contest to age versus corruption. I, as much as anyone, wish we had perfect candidates from whom to choose; but, in today's fierce competition for high-tech jobs, education should be paramount. On that front there is no choice: Governor Celeste finally did what needed to be done. He put Ohio's money where its mouth was, and we should all return the favor for the kids' and Cincinnati's future. Please re-elect Governor Richard Celeste!
Sincerely,
Barbara Volz Smith
I am hoping, with this letter, I can convince a few more students who are registered voters that there is an important reason to exercise their privilege and responsibility at the polls on November 4th. As a former public high school history teacher in Cincinnati, I probably notice education issues more than some, and this city's secondary students need your help!
When you went to high school, didn't you wish the building was in better shape and that the texts were more up-to-date? A group of parents here is working to pass a 3.7 mill, 5-year tax levy to pay for just such items. As proposed, this levy would help counteract a 3.9 mill rollback passed last year, as well as the retirement of a 2 mill bond issue this year.
Please take the time and energy to cast your desperately-needed vote for these kids and this town, to which you chose to come for college. Only about 700 votes passed the last levy, as well as the subsequent rollback, so you can make the difference!
Thanks sincerely,
Barbara V. Smith
Your front page story, "Celeste asks for tax hike for schools", by Roger Lowe, quotes several elected officials with whom I feel I must take issue.
Unlike Senate President Stanley Aronoff, I see a great need for increased spending, from having been inside the schools and having read newspaper coverage of them (overcrowded classrooms, unsafe buildings, outdated materials, functionally illiterate graduates who can't compete with other nations for jobs and so add to the welfare rolls, etc.). Despite low taxes, Mr. Aronoff's vaunted recovery will slow if the population is too poorly educated to attract new business, fill slots as workers in the new highly technical job market, or add to the taxpayer rather than welfare lists.
House Speaker Vernal Riffe and Senator Eugene Branstool seem to be for postponing the quest for additional revenues. When are people going to realize the dire consequences of postponing solutions until problems reach crisis proportions? I was part of the Cincinnati school system under former Governor Rhodes. I went to a financial counselor for advice when I found I couldn't afford both rent on a one-bedroom apartment and payments for a used car. She said it saddened her to tell me I wasn't doing anything wrong. Cincinnati at the time merely didn't pay its teachers enough to live a middle class life.
The problem that I was part of finally did reach crisis proportions. First, Cincinnati teachers struck for a living wage. As a result of the ensuing budget deficit, the schools closed and the teachers had to collect unemployment insurance. To avoid more embarrassing nationally-publicized closings, the state enacted the tragi-comic combination of laws that prohibited school closings by requiring these bankrupt districts to apply to a new state loan fund.
The newly-elected Governor Celeste at last ended this farce with the politically unpopular income tax hike, but subsequently began rebating much of it to the voters in successive cuts over the years. Now, we're back in the same boat!
No one likes to send part of his or her hard-earned payckeck elsewhere, but the income tax is the fairest method of raising money for needed services. Leadership should shoulder the responsibility for handling statewide problems expeditiously. I, for one, salute Governor Celeste for exhibiting such a quality, although I find it pitiful that he feels it necessary to shroud such a movement in constitutional amendments.
Sincerely,
Barbara V. Smith
I'm a former history, government, & math teacher, and many of my friends & colleagues also quit the schools in total frustration for many of the following reasons:
I'm a "Baby Boomer", but can't you also just see the incompetence that pervades every company & institution in this country? Every time one has an interaction with a fast food outlet or the electric company or a furniture store, etc. one must tell them how to run their businesses since they can seldom do it right on the first or even the third try. Maybe it's only because half of their colleagues have been "downsized" out, so the people at the top can take their salaries & benefits to augment their own bigger salaries & stock options, that the ones remaining don't give a damn. Still, it's obvious that "we're going to hell in a hand-basket" as previous generations would've said. No wonder the up-and-coming generation is so messed up. I pray to God that He, or a real leader who arises, or SOMEONE saves us before it's too late!
May I, at last, express my condolences to, & prayers for, all the innocent students & parents & teachers & citizens of Littleton, CO & the rest of nation & the World?
Barbara V. Smith