Failed School Levies Will Have A Negative Impact On My Family AND YOU!

Fortunately, it looks like a number of school levies in central Ohio did pass yesterday in the May elections. But the two levies my family was affected by failed.

Individually, I am not affected by either of the levies because I do not teach in either district. But my wife does and my daughter will most likely attend a school in the other district next year.

With two teachers in my household, we obviously have a biased view on this topic but I still believe I would be pro-schools had I chosen a different profession. I was raised by two parents who always supported public schools despite the fact that my siblings and I attended Catholic Schools for much of our early years. I also understand the importance of strong schools in a capitalistic society.

There are a number of specific reasons I pledge my support to public schools beyond the well being of my job. As a citizen of this area, I am counting on the youth to grow and learn and become productive citizens contributing to my well being. We all need each other to perform our jobs well whether it is digging a ditch, working on our roads, running our government, developing new technologies, taking care of our children, running our businesses and so on.

I also prefer that the youth is not out causing problems or committing crimes. In fact, even grown adults will commit less crime if they are more educated. Less crime means a better overall well being for me and my family. It means a safer place to live and usually, a cleaner place to live.

Generally speaking, I think we should support sports and unified arts in school. These outlets and opportunities provide children with talent in these area a chance to foster these talents and grow and become contributing citizens. Without them, they most likely struggle in the traditional classes and become frustrated, disenchanted and more likely to become a burden on their fellow citizens instead of a contributor.

In my specific case, I have a daughter who is cognitively impaired and needs as much intervention as she can get. Her mother, stepmother and I intervene as much as we can but we need the schools to contribute. Her significant advancements this school year are a direct result to the number of specialists and assistants that work in her room with her teacher. Her small class size allows her teacher to give her more individualized attention. All these things have helped her tremendously and they cost money. These services are high on the list of services to be cut when levies don't pass.

Imagine children who are in more need than my daughter. Not every child with cognitive impairments has three teachers in their life. Some don't even have two parents who care that much. If they fall through the cracks, it means more money from us later to jail them or keep them in a mental institution like they did before special education and MRDD were created to help.

That is not a kind of life I want my daughter to live or anyone for that matter. We have moved away from that for a reason.

I am willing to pay to intervene early through the schools.

Times are tough. People do not have the money to pay even more taxes. It seems like we have "bailed out" every industry that exists and it is frustrating that things only seem to get worse.

My point is that education should be a top priority on the list regardless of whether we have kids in the school system or not. We are all affected by it. The good of our country and society depends on it. We will not be able to brag about how great our country is if we can't compete with the China's and Europe's of the world. We need smart people to deal with diplomacy and figure out new ways to fix the economy and new energy and a way to release from our dependency on oil and fossil fuels.

Everybody loves to blame schools, but when it comes time to help, they refuse to help. It is not fair to complain and then do nothing about it. Either vote for levies so you have a right to complain, or shut up!