Youngstown schools official should not use scare tactics

If voters of the Youngstown City Schools District are to make an intelligent decision on the proposed 9.5-mill tax levy that will appear on the November ballot, they need factual information.
Taxpayers aren't stupid and they are quick to discern when they're being handled. On the other hand, if they believe they're being told the truth, they will give the tax proposal a fair shake.
Thus, we urge officials of the Youngstown city schools to refrain from doing what Youngstown School Board member Shelley Murray did Tuesday, which was to exaggerate the damage if the levy is rejected.
Murray, one of the five members who voted to place the 9.5-mill issue on the ballot, said that voting against it would hurt schoolchildren. The other four voting yes were Jacqueline Taylor, Michael Write, Lock P. Beachum Sr. and Jamael Tito Brown. The two members who opposed placing the levy on the ballot were Dominic Modarelli and Kathryn Hawks.
How does Murray believe that schoolchildren would be hurt? By the state coming in and cutting "for the sake of cutting" with no regard for academic programs and recent district academic improvements.
While it is true that without the additional revenue from the levy the school district would have to go into state mandated "fiscal emergency," Murray's opinion of what that means is not only wrong, it is irresponsible.
Oversight committee
Yes, fiscal emergency would bring in a state oversight commission to take control of the district's finances, but no, the panel would not make budget cuts at the expense of academics.
As an official of the Ohio Department of Education said, when told of Murray's contention, "It is not about cutting for the sake of cutting. The committee would be using historical data to make sound policy decisions to ultimately improve the academic performance and fiscal integrity of the school district."
He noted that there are eight school districts in fiscal emergency, including Struthers and East Liverpool, and they have not been destroyed academically.
The state oversight commissions work in partnership with the districts and make strong recommendations to the boards of education, but are well aware of the need for local control, the state board of education official said.
Murray would do well to call the eight school districts that are in fiscal emergency and ask whether the state panels have sacrificed academics for balanced budgets.
The state is confident that she will not hear anything that would support her position.
The taxpayers deserve the unvarnished truth about the Youngstown City Schools District and should be able to judge for themselves whether the steps that have been taken by the school board to erase the red ink in the budget are adequate and meet the definition of an aggressive cost-cutting plan.
Scare tactics and the sky-is-falling scenarios won't work.