Ohio leaders need to look at revamping school funding

Ohio leaders need to look at revamping school funding
EDITOR:
In response to a Sept. 23 Vindicator editorial, & quot;Local criticism of OhioReads takes politics to the extreme, & quot; money sure isn't spent the way it used to be in Ohio government. To use the phraseology of the editors of The Vindicator and Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, $17.4 million is now "a mere pittance" and "a drop in the bucket." Although, $17.4 million may seem an infinitesimal amount when viewed through the eyes of the state's $45 billion biennial budget, no doubt this money could be spent in a host of ways to better the education of our children and improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods.
As many readers may have noticed, The Vindicator was openly critical of several Mahoning Valley legislators, myself included, for having the gall to disparage Taft and his OhioReads program after the governor's whirlwind tour to promote his project. Instead of showing our "partisan stripes" as was stated in the article, The Vindicator implored Valley legislators to do what's right for Ohio schoolchildren and get parents more involved in their child's day-to-day academic life. By criticizing OhioReads, we are not telling parents to not be involved with their children.
The OhioReads program may be worthwhile, but it is a program with unsubstantiated success. Since its inception, OhioReads has awarded more than $114 million in grants to more than 2,000 Ohio schools. The goal of the program: to improve reading scores on Ohio's fourth-grade proficiency test. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported last year, after an in-depth analysis of the program, that passing rates dropped at most OhioReads schools during the first two years of the program. The problem: Many schools have difficulty recruiting and keeping dependable volunteer tutors. Even more troubling, many pupils who have been unable to master reading at the hands of professionals are simply beyond the help of a tutor with little training. Yet, with properly trained professionals and continued assessment and development, the vast majority of these struggling pupils will succeed. To achieve these results, we must provide our local school districts with reliable and steady funding sources.
While cheerleading for Taft and his program, The Vindicator also commends business leaders in Ohio for sponsoring a portion of the OhioReads program. Good for them, but if big businesses in this state truly wish to help the children of Ohio, they can all start by paying their fair share in taxes. Nine of the wealthiest corporations in Ohio, with sales totaling nearly $7 billion, pay a mere $50 in combined state taxes. That's right: Five-Zero. I'm no math major, but $7 billion of taxable income on sales must generate at least several hundred million dollars in state revenue. This is state revenue that can be directly appropriated to Ohio schools and take some of the burden off homeowners who continue to see their property taxes going through the roof.
Our system of educating children is mired in problems Taft and his predecessors have chosen to ignore. This is not a partisan problem. It's a simple matter of conjuring the political willpower to make the changes necessary to completely revamp the way we fund schools in Ohio and the corporate tax structure.
State Sen. ROBERT HAGAN
Youngstown
Downtown Youngstownhas lost too many treasures
EDITOR:
I read with interest the Sept. 28 Years Ago item in The Vindicator. The caption under a picture of Central Square in Youngstown during the Ohio Sesquicentennial celebration in 1953 stated that the branch library pictured in the background was now sitting "forlornly" as a "storage building" on Route 422 in Girard.
Well, that may be all well and good for Girard. However, now that Youngstown has secured funds to open up Federal Street (which never should have been closed in the first place), the downtown branch library should be brought back to Youngstown, where it originated.
Youngstown has lost so many landmarks of our past, and it is way beyond time that these lost memories be brought back to where they belong. They never should have been let go.
Let us do whatever it takes to bring back whatever we can. Even if it means forming a committee to research the necessary legalities to bring back the downtown library branch, and, perhaps an even larger stretch, the Idora Park Carousel, another lost treasure of Youngstown.
SHIRLEY MORTELLARO
Youngstown