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Northeast Suburban Life
April 27, 2011
VIEWPOINTS
EDITORIALS
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LETTERS
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COLUMNS
Editor Dick Maloney | rmaloney@communitypress.com | 248-7134
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CH@TROOM
communitypress.com
What is to fear from school voucher system? My husband and I attended the open workshop conducted by the KnowledgeWorks organization April 12. The purpose of this workshop was to examine Sycamore’s future – to “explore key changes in society that will reshape education over the next decade and the impact these changes will have on the district.” The goal of KnowledgeWorks is to “insure every educational institution is a place of learning.” During the workshop it seemed clear that the assumption is that only public education can best provide this monumental task in today’s society. The audience was primarily administration and staff of the district with a few parents and the two of us (taxpayers) who are semi-retired and working in the public sector arena. Several
CH@TROOM April 20 questions
What plans do you have for your garden this year? How much do you plan to spend? How does that compare to last year? “My garden is an out of control hobby. Fortunately we are blessed with a big yard. My vegetable growing area has grown from 20feet-by-30-feet last year to 30by-30 this year. My pepper and tomato plants have been growing under lights and are just about ready to go in. This year I plan on growing many new varieties and heirlooms. For fruit I am up to thre peach trees, a pear tree, and have also added a new variety of persimmon tree to my mini orchard. Further fruit production includes a nine-by-nine strawberry patch, currant bushes along the house foundation, and enough raspberry bushes scattered around to make a gallon of wine from the fruit. In addition to this madness I propagate a few hundred native trees and bushes from seed in containers that I donate for reforestation projects. This year’s crop of trees includes some species I have finally gotten to germinate after several years of trying. While I probably don’t save any money, I take a great amount of satisfaction from gardening, and the produce tastes so much better than the mystery stuff at the store shipped in from who knows where.” P.H. “Our garden will be two years old this year thanks to our grand-
attendees voiced that Sycamore needs to focus more just on the basics, especially reading, and is not in a position to customize educaColleen tion – the proGreissinger posed way of the future. Community My point of Press guest view was and is columnist that parents, who know their children the best, should have the choice via vouchers in order to afford to not enroll in the public system if they so choose. Procompetition and market-driven forces would radically transform and “reshape” for the better the entire education system.
Next questions How much attention are you paying to the wedding plans of Prince William and Kate Middleton? Why do you think people are fascinated by the Royal Family? Every week The Northeast Suburban Life asks readers a questions that they can reply to via email. Send your answers to nesuburban@communitypress.com with “chatroom” in the subject line. children. “After explaining various foods at the dinner table we thought a garden would be the perfect teacher for city kids. Not only do we enjoy our choice of fresh vegetables, we save on food costs.” R.V. “When we moved into this house in 1971, I had a really nice area in the back yard where I planted a whole lot of things like beans, radishes, beets, carrots, corn, tomatoes and other things. It was fun and rewarding to enjoy the fruits of my labor, and I guess I felt a little bit proud of it. “But as years went by, things changed. Trees grew near the garden, and shaded what once was sunny. But perhaps the most significant thing of all was that things got a little complicated as we were raising our three kids, and I didn’t have as much time as I used to. “Today, all of my interest has died, and I think a lot of people would say that this happens as we get older. I wish I still had the time and energy (and a nice plot), but Kroger is so close and so wellstocked that it just doesn’t seem worth it.” B.B. “As to the garden deal, I plan to spend about the same. I felt last year was mostly a failure, but as the season wore on I found most everyone had had the same experience (the drought, you know). “To close on a positive note, my stringbeans were good.” F.N.
The wet spring has altered some garden plans – and enhanced some others.
Symmes Township is accepting new bids for playground equipment at the Rozzi property park after Trustee Jodie Leis said she wanted something “unique” for the park. Do you agree with Leis? What kinds of play equipment would you like to see at the park? No responses.
The demand and needs would naturally be supplied by the providers in a competitive manner with the inherent financial incentives driving the cost of education dramatically downward. How would a $3,000 a year voucher (private tuition) offered in lieu of a $14,733 a year cost per student (Sycamore) impact the taxpayers in Ohio? Gov. Kasich is asking for your support in favor of vouchers. The Ohio House Finance Committee is meeting this week to discuss what changes are needed to our state’s educational system. We need to send a message that the state’s voucher program should be significantly expanded. However, opponents of education reform are bombarding the offices of the governor and state legislators with anti-school choice messages,
basically wanting to continue as a monopoly, so it is essential that they hear from those of us who want choice, with education costs reduction. Please visit the “federation for children.org” website today for more information. Needed changes will never happen if parents, voters, educators and politicians continue to be uninformed or too entrenched in “special interest” groups or just not courageous enough to risk bringing on a seismic quake that would shake us into reality and what is ultimately best for parents, children and the taxpayers (employers) alike. The recession was a decisive incentive to challenge programs and practices that have too long been considered “untouchable.” We simply need to reinvent
our states and schools – period. The “elephant in the living room” was not even looked at Tuesday evening in this audience who profess to be “all about the children” and say they only want what is best for them. What – parents really do not know? The answer is for the adults to boldly lead for the sake of the children, as it is now being forced upon them by taxpayers who are rightfully and finally saying “enough.” If the Sycamore leaders are so sure about their superior services, what is there for them to be worried about, I ask? Let the games of pro-competition begin. There is no more road left to “kick this can” down as we have reached the end of a road called “Fantasy Land Lane.” Colleen Greissinger is a resident of Blue Ash.
Time for U.S. to rethink role In our new and fast-paced world, instant gratification, and its dark half, instant forgetting, makes our nation’s world view both jaded and flawed. Take our recent incursion in Libya and the recent forays to Iraq and Afghanistan. Each began with grand objectives and high ideals that we expected to be fulfilled immediately. Are we kidding? In Libya, we first “re-friended” Gadhafi under President Bush and now declare him the deranged tyrant he always was, now spending billions to bring him down, along with NATO. In Iraq, we supplied Saddam Hussein with weapons (including the nerve agents he used on his own people) in the 1980s because he was a counter-balance to Iran. After invading Iraq, we had no plan, and are now dismayed to see that making a stable Iraq is not done overnight. As for Afghanistan, we helped create a monster, Al-Qaeda, by supplying the “rebels” who were fighting the Soviet invaders and now we have gone from trying to destroy them in a justifiable response to 9-11 to rebuilding Afghanistan as a democracy. And it’s not only in the Middle East. In the 1960s through the 1980s we aided, supported and
abetted repressive military dictatorships in Latin America because we wanted to “counter the Soviet threat.” When that Bruce Healey went away in Community the late ‘80s we ummarily Press guest signored the columnist region. Except Cuba, which is still in the penalty box for “being a repressive Communist regime” while we pour money into communist China – which is somehow different. We now wonder why the likes of Hugo Chavez (who supplies this country with more oil than the Arabian Gulf states) and others are openly hostile, and our support of open markets and democracy is looked upon with grave misgivings by those living there. We are not in a position, financially, morally or politically to be rebuilding nations far from home – or anywhere. If we were an imperial power that took over countries in order to overtly exploit them it would be in our interest to conquer and rebuild. This is not (openly at
least) the case. We have to get off our high horse, recognize that we cannot change what we don’t understand, and have no business imposing change on anyone. As for our financial abilities, we are spending more on our “defense” than all of our allies combined. It is by far the biggest item of discretionary spending on the budget and if cuts are needed we must begin there. In summary, we have embarked on a series of international adventures with hopes of quick fixes and easy “outs” that would leave the world a better place. We ignored or forgot our past actions and their consequences, dismissed knowledge of the regions, peoples and cultures involved as irrelevant and blundered on into the abyss. It’s time to re-think our role in the world with a dose of humility. It is time to realize that the world will not change overnight just because we will it so, and we certainly need to understand the world today in light of our past actions and reflect upon our true national interest. Education is a good place to start. Bruce Healey is an Indian Hill resident.
POLITICALLY SPEAKING Reaction from local lawmakers to issues in the news:
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman comments on the one-year anniversary of the health care law: “Washington missed a historic opportunity a year ago to truly reduce costs and expand coverage for Ohio families and small businesses. “The law’s big-government approach to our health care system is bad for Ohio’s economy. The nearly $813 billion in tax increases in the legislation makes it difficult for companies affected to hire new workers or invest in innovation, technology and research.” “Whether it is federal court rulings or the United States House of Representatives voting to repeal the health care law, it is clear that the new health care is unacceptable to many. Looking back at how this bill was jammed through
on partisan lines, what I find so unfortunate is that there was, and still is, a better way to reduce health care costs and expand coverage without growing government, threatening our economy or risking jobs.”
Ohio Senate Majority Whip Shannon Jones issued the following statement regarding a news conference held by Policy Matters Ohio and the members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus and House Democratic Women’s Caucus to discuss their opposition to Senate Bill 5: “It’s time to put the scare tactics and political rhetoric aside and own up to the fact that we’re broke. We don’t have the tax dollars to sustain many of today’s escalating labor costs and fringe benefits. We need to find the balance between reliable public service and the growing inability to pay for it.”
A publication of Northeast Suburban Life Editor .Dick Maloney rmaloney@communitypress.com . . . . . .248-7134
The Ohio House Democratic Women’s Caucus is criticizing House passage of legislation which will disenfranchise thousands of qualified voters by requiring all Ohioans to show government photo identification to cast a ballot. Women’s Caucus Secretary Rep. Connie Pillich (DMontgomery) issued this statement: “Over 90 years after women won a hard-fought battle for the right to vote, the Ohio House sends a message to Ohio women: tough luck. This bill disproportionately disenfranchises women due to the number of women who change their names upon marriage and the many older women who have no state ID, nor any means to obtain one. The costs to comply with HB 159 amount to nothing more than a poll tax.”
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