Public schools under attack from Ohio legislators

Public schools under attack from Ohio legislators
EDITOR:
The Vindicator editorial of July 7 exposes the wiles of the Republican controlled General Assembly. Despite the many rulings of the Ohio Supreme Court to the fact that the funding of the Ohio public schools is illegal and unconstitutional, the politicians of the state do nothing to remedy this discrepancy.
They continue to divert more public tax moneys to affluent and segregated parochial and private schools.
Ohio leads the nation for finding funds for non-public schools while ranking near the bottom in providing tax money for the schools of all the people. As a result, the property owner is asked to vote for more taxes for the public schools.
The United States Supreme Court with its parochial members approved the Cleveland voucher scheme. This opened a Pandora's box. Now all sorts of religious schools are eligible to apply for tax money to subsidize their religious propaganda. According to the editorial, the state politicians inserted language written by the Catholic Conference that expanded the Cleveland voucher scheme.
We are in danger of losing our religious liberties when elected politicians ignore their vows to uphold the Constitution and bow to the demands of a religious lobby. We know what happens when religion controls the politics and the politicians in other countries. President T.R. Roosevelt in 1915 wrote: "I hold that in this country there must be complete severance of church and state. No public moneys shall subsidize parochial schools."
Long before Jefferson and Madison espoused the concept of separation of church and state, the Baptist Roger Williams did just that when he was expelled from Massachusetts. We now have another anti-public school propagandist, the present secretary of education, Rodney Paige.
We now have government of the religious lobbyists, for the religious lobbyists and by the religious lobbyists. We should include the lobby for the religious fundamentalists.
MELVIN S. FRANK
Poland
City can't get the job done
EDITOR:
No doubt there are people in the community who could envision themselves standing on the east side of the Market Street bridge, looking down at all of the bulldozers, backhoes and concrete mixer trucks, preparing the foundation for the new arena/convocation center. FUGEDABOUTIT!
The city administration has a propensity for making wrong decisions, missing deadlines, ignoring technical advice and otherwise refuting what common sense would dictate. They had at one time, a panel of individuals who were given the task of developing the arena project. These were people who had the diverse backgrounds necessary for such an undertaking. What happened ? City council fired them...
Tom Chema, the head honcho for the Gateway project in Cleveland, would have all the contracts signed, marketing studies completed, financing arranged and people would very likely be at the bridge railing looking down at the construction activity, right now.
This writer fully concurs with Sen. Meshel on this issue, regarding the point of having knowledgeable individuals in a position of authority to administer this program. While I respect the intelligence of George McKelvey and lend credit to the members of the city council for endeavors in the various community matters, they are not equipped to assume this type of responsibility.
My suggestion would be to invite Bruce Zoldan to take an active role since he was the one who conceived the idea of an arena about five years ago and has likely done his homework on all the aspects of such a program.
WILLIAM B. PEARCH
Struthers