Valley officials not sold on free tuition plan

Property owners already pay too much, a school official said.
YOUNGSTOWN -- "Additional taxes aren't something people are looking for right now," said Richard Denamen, superintendent of the Mahoning Valley Educational Service Center.
Denamen's comment, in reaction to a Regional Chamber of Commerce proposal to provide tuition-free college or vocational school education, appeared to represent a common feeling among local school officials.
To promote a better educated work force, the chamber's board this week unanimously endorsed tuition-free local college or vocational school education for all Mahoning Valley high school graduates to be funded by administrative overhead savings to be achieved through consolidation of school districts into just one per county.
If those savings aren't sufficient, a tax would be put on the November 2008 ballot to fund the tuition-free program, under the chamber proposal.
Opposed
The savings are just conjecture at this point, Denamen said, repeating that he doesn't believe people are inclined to accept another tax.
David Moore, president of the Canfield school board, said the free tution sounds good but asked where the money would come from. He wondered if other programs might have to be cut to provide those funds.
Moore said he would hate to see another tax added for that purpose.
Michael Creatore, president of the Austintown school board, likewise said he isn't in favor of asking the taxpayers for more money to provide free tuition. He suggested that Ohio needs to fix its entire educational funding system first.
Property owners have already been paying way too much for too long, Creatore said.
Suzanne Hall of Austintown, an Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation claims assistant, has two children, ages 6 and 13, in the Austintown schools and saves money for their college education.
"I work. I put savings away to send my kids to school. Why should everybody have free tuition?," she said.
Support
On the other hand, Donna Smith of Struthers, a legal secretary, said, "I think that would be a good thing to give everyone the opportunity to further their education and thereby open the doors for better opportunities of employment and career choices."
Smith added that she'd consider voting for a tax to support the tuition-free concept to benefit local youth, depending on the size of the proposed tax.
"I certainly like the idea about free tuition and vocational training for all high school graduates," said J. Michael Thompson, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor and chairman of the Poland Village Planning Commission.
Thompson said he might vote for a tax to support tuition-free higher education.
April Turner of Girard, a Sky bank commercial loan specialist who has a college-bound child, said she favors the chamber's education proposal.
"You're going to have to have an education to do pretty much anything with the next generation that's coming up, so anything to help that I feel is very important, " she said.
If the state Legislature had given all lottery profits to schools as promised, students could probably go on to higher education for free and without more tax, said Stephen Larcomb, Salem schools superintendent.
CONTRIBUTORS: Vindicator staff writers Harold Gwin, Peter H. Milliken, D.A. Wilkinson and Tim Yovich.