It’s time for all candidates to sound off on education

It’s time for all candidates to sound off on education

EDITOR:

In the next few months, we will understandably hear that this is the most important national election in a generation. So is it too much to ask that all candidates for national office, including Congress, say something about education and the policies they support or oppose?

In the interest of the approximately 7,500 students in the Youngstown City School District and the 50 million public school students across the country, it is our desire and need to have every candidate develop an awareness to make education a priority in deeds, not just words.

Major tasks that await them. The No Child Left Behind Act is badly flawed and very much underfunded. We strongly hope that Congress will allocate the resources to help our schools provide every student the education and skills that will be an absolute necessity to succeed in a rapidly changing economic and global society.

Congress must do more to respect the judgment of school boards and educators in our local schools because these individuals are the ones who are assigned the tasks of teaching and learning that takes place in classrooms on a daily basis. Every school district is unique; therefore it is very difficult to impose broad “one-size-fits-all” mandates on every school in the country.

Congress and the next administration must become partners with school districts and states — working with us in our shared goals to offer a world-class education to all students.

The time is now for all candidates to inform voters and tell them their stance on these issues and how they intend to proceed.

LOCK P. BEACHUM Sr.

Youngstown

X The writer is vice president of the Youngstown Board of Education and vice chairman of the National Council of Urban Boards of Education.

In a word, the water is great

EDITOR:

Bertram de Souza writes an interesting article about the abundance of water in this northeastern quadrant of Ohio, but is remiss in not mentioning a very important fact about our water. I suspect that most of the population of this district are not aware of this salient fact about our water.

The fact is that our water is odorless and tasteless. In fact it would be possible to bottle this water and sell it as bottled water to compete with all the bottled waters that are on the market today. One very good reason for such great water is that Lake Meander is not used by the public for boating, fishing, swimming or any other public activity.

We should be very careful to keep Meander Lake in the pristine condition it is in. We have a great resource, and should guard it zealously.

LEONARD J. SAINATO

Warren

City should heed warning

EDITOR:

I was born and raised in Youngstown and though my career has taken me away, much of my vacation time is spent visiting family and friends who remain. Included in this group are my 80-year-old parents, who own a home on Old Furnace Road in the 4th Ward.

Old Furnace Road is a two-lane residential street running from Bears Den Road to Volney Road. It is bordered by single family homes and Mill Creek Park. Appropriately, this narrow residential pathway has a 25 mph speed limit. The truth of the matter is that no residential avenue in the city is more dangerous, or has more drivers violating the posted speed limit, than Old Furnace Road.

Spend an hour or two on Old Furnace Road and you will observe drivers routinely exceeding, if not doubling, the posted speed limit. Pulling out of driveways or from the small arteries leading from Mill Creek Park onto Old Furnace Road requires a combination of deftness and courage. Walking a dog or riding a bike on Old Furnace Road is the real life equivalent of “Frogger,” a video game where points are awarded to leaping amphibians skilled enough to make it across a busy animated street. Youngstown’s linear version of the Daytona Speedway is not only dangerous, it is a shameful example of the city’s leaders turning a blind-eye to the health, safety and welfare of its residents.

For years, residents of Old Furnace have lobbied for speed bumps or other traffic control devises to help bring this ridiculous situation under control. Hopefully, this letter will serve as the impetus for city action rather than an exhibit for the estate of a family killed on Old Furnace Road by a speeding motorist.

GREGORY GERJEL

Orlando, Fla.

My, oh my, Ohio

EDITOR:

While checking my hometown paper to see how the Ohioans were reacting to the presidential bids of Barack Obama and John McCain, I was deeply saddened to read Bertram de Souza’s “Obama will be a tough sell in Ohio” column. It more or less lays out that the state, particularly its women, will not vote for Obama because they “can’t see a black in the White House.”

I’m not sure if the disgusting bigotry actually lies with de Souza or the state’s women (I guess we’ll find out in November), but after eight years of war, economic mismanagement, environmental destruction, and ineffective reproductive health policy, does Youngstown actually think that an intelligent, well-spoken man with a plan for leading our nation back from this brink is too scary a proposition because of his mixed-race background? Seriously? In this country, of all places? This is not just a quirky thing about my home state that I can let slide; it’s terribly, terribly offensive.

MOLLY SHERIDAN

Baltimore, Md.