School board members should do a better job

School board members should do a better job
EDITOR:
It's that time again for the superintendent and board of education for Youngstown city schools to tell us, the taxpayers, that they've run out of money and expect to be in the red by $4 million by the end of the year.
How could they get in this bind? Only a few years ago they had to have the state come in and run the board's affairs until it could get out of debt. They have a treasurer who is constantly reminding them of their financial condition. Some of the present board members were on the board at the time it spent more money than it had. Were there no lessons learned from this? Surely the board has a budget to plan and guide its spending.
Board members have two jobs: (1) to give the best education to the students and (2) give us taxpayers "the best bang for our bucks." I can only hope that the first item is more successful than the second one has been.
President Bush has suggested that we take care of our own retirement by being our own investors. I would hope the board members do a better job of managing their personal finances than they have managing the board's money. Perhaps a training course could be required of all would-be board members before they can run for the office. I don't think we expect a board to show a profit, but with good business practice the board should be able to break even.
No doubt we'll hear a proposal for an additional school levy. If the board members can't manage what they have had, how will they do trying to manage more?
There must be a lot of possible ways to keep from going broke. If that isn't possible, perhaps it's time to stop "passing the buck" and time for the board members to turn in their suits and let others see what they can do.
WILLIAM D. GRAEBING
Youngstown
Some thoughts about nukes, bikes and automobiles
EDITOR:
What about the nukes that the Israelis possess? The U.S. seems to be obsessed with Iran getting nukes while Israel has had nukes for years. Is this our ace in the hole in a volatile region of the world? People seem to forget that the last time Iran tried to build nuclear power plants that the Israelis went in with F 15s or 16s and bombed them to smithereens.
Now that the Hamas government is in control of Palestine, the coyote and roadrunner cartoon will continue to fester in the Middle East. Is this where the U.S. will stick its big nose in next? The Palestinians are not bad people. Leave them alone and worry more about securing the Mexican border in our own country. The U.S. now rewards Mexicans for breaking the law. What kind of policy is that?
Here is another issue that gets under my skin. With General Motors struggling, the Chinese are going to flood the U.S. with throw away cars (drive them a while, then throw them away). Will we see cars parked on the sidewalks in front of Wal-Marts like bicycles made in China? Those bicycles also took away American jobs.
If I had known the World Trade Organization was going to be so lopsided, I would have flown to Seattle years ago and broke windows and burned buildings in protest of this bogus organization. Now I am unemployed due to foreign imports and have retrained through the T.A.A. program, only to find out that nobody wants to hire a 47 year old welder with little experience.
Kill the Chinese car deal before it kills our auto industry and economic stability. I pity the next American president with the mess that this administration has left. Cleaning it up won't be easy.
TIMOTHY SMITH
Wellsville