CLEVELAND, Ohio- (Editor's note: Below is a response by Kimberly Brown (pictured) to the guest editorial of Larry Woods, who called Brown a hater for her guest editorial to Cleveland Urban News.Com opposing Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's (pictured) education plan and the 15 mill Cleveland Municipal School District operating levy on the ballot for November. Among other provisions, Jackson's plan, which is now state law with Republican Gov. John Kasich's support, replaces teacher seniority with merit pay and hands public funds slated for the majority Black district for charter schools. The Cleveland Teachers Union leadership team, all nine Blacks on Cleveland City Council, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-11), all of the Black state legislators from Cleveland but state Sen. Shirley Smith (D-22), and the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Call and Post Newspapers support the mayor's controversial plan. Community activists generally oppose it and Cleveland Urban News.Com www.clevelandurbannews.com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com have not taken a formal position on the controversial issue but will do so in coming weeks. And the aforementioned Black officials that backed the plan are not necessarily backing the levy, though Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson, who enjoys some support from grassroots factions on community matters, is among those that have publicly announced support of it. The mayor controls the schools under state law, and appoints the Cleveland Board of Education).

In a previous editorial Brown wrote in pertinent part that school district officials are not fiscally responsible enough to warrant passage of the levy during a national recession and that the levy is not about children.

By Larry Woods, Guest Columnist

CLEVELAND, Ohio-I am a high school drop out named Larry Woods.  I saw Kim Brown's comments to the mayor's education proposal and was struck by the brevity and the negativity. (Editor's note: This is an editorial by Larry Woods in response to the one that ran in Cleveland Urban News.Com on July 4 by Kimberly Brown, a former Cleveland mayor candidate and unsuccessful candidate for Cuyahoga County Council who opposes Cleveland Mayor Jackson's education plan that is now a state law that strips Cleveland schools teachers of seniority in exchange for merit pay and hands public monies slated for the school district to charter schools, among other provisions. Signed into law two weeks ago by Republican Gov. John Kasich,  the education plan also calls for a levy on the November ballot, something Brown also criticized. Read Brown's editorial here at Cleveland Urban News.Com and also at the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com at http://www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com/2012/07/gov-kasich-comes-to-cleveland-to-join_04.html )

I agree that to ask already strapped homeowners to pony-up more of their scarce funds for a system that does one of the worst jobs of educating [children] known to man [might be unreasonable].

But not once did Kim Brown suggest an alternative or give a solution to the main problem, a system that does not educate our children and only trains them to be employed by businesses that have shipped most of their jobs to cheaper waters.

By Johnette Jernigan, Cleveland Urban News.Com Staff Reporter

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cleveland Urban News.Com Reporter Johnette Jernigan  had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Ashley Allison (pictured), a native of Youngstown, Oh., and now the 'Get Out The Vote’ African-American Vote director for Ohio for the Obama for America Campaign.

From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online Newsblog.Com

CLEVELAND,Ohio-President Barack Obama (pictured) weathered scathing hot temperatures that hit 94 degrees to speak to a capacity crowd at the James Day Park in the Cleveland suburb of Parma Oh. on Thursday afternoon, and went to Sandusky, Oh., and then on to a campaign stop in Pittsburgh, PA.