CLEVELAND,Ohio- Kimberly Brown (pictured), a former Cleveland mayoral candidate who also lost a bid for Cuyahoga County Council, writes the guest editorial below against a levy in November that woud support the financially strapped Cleveland Municipal School District.
This editorial is that of Brown's and does not necessarily represent the views or the position on the matter of Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leading online Black news venue.
Cleveland Urban News.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com welcome editorial letters on this most important issue and will take a stand on the matter publicly and in the near feature. Send editorial letters to editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
On Monday Ohio Republican Gov John Kasich made a special trip to Cleveland to meet with Democratic Mayor Frank Jackson, who controls the city's-public schools under state law, to sign into state law an education bill passed by the Ohio State Legislature that pertains only to the majority Black Cleveland public schools and its largely White teachers union that strips them of seniority and calls for a levy to use some funds slated for the district to build charter schools, among other provisions.
Cleveland area unions, other than what some are calling the weak leadership team of the Cleveland Teachers Union, are against the bill that all of the Black state legislators from Cleveland voted for but strong State Sen. Shirley Smith (D-22) , one of two Black state senators from the Cleveland area along with state Sen Nina Turner (D-25), a Jackson protege and former councilperson of Cleveland's Ward 1 who co-sponsored the legislation for Jackson with three other state legislators including state Rep. Sandra Williams (D-11), a Cleveland Democrat and head of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus.
____________Editorial by Guest Columnist Kimberly Brown______________________________
Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson and several public officials, lawmaker sand community advocates will push for the Cleveland schools levy that will be on the November 2012 ballot.
It is unbelievable to expect anyone to take this levy seriously. Home owners are barely able to pay their mortgages. So to financially bully them into a local school tax mandate is fiscally irresponsible.
To date, it has not been explained why homeowners should be held responsible fora $16 million deficit that was caused by poor risk management, meager leadership and pitiable oversight.
To issue Cleveland Municipal School District officials a bailout by way of a school levy is irresponsible.
It’s certainly not about the children.
While lay-offs are still occurring within the district the Cleveland Boar of Education, which the mayor appoints by state law, recently hired a chief academic officer with an annual salary of $200 thousand.
This is an apparent contradiction to the proposed financially strapped district.
It’s not about the kids. It’s about political folly.
Kimberly Brown @ telephone: 440-479-2823
