Betras is correct; McNally should resign as mayor

Betras is correct; McNally should resign as mayor

I have to acknow- ledge the response coming from the chairman of Mahoning County Democratic Party urging Youngstown Mayor John McNally to resign, as reported by your paper. I have long been an admirer of Mr. Betras and now even more so. I am in total agreement with Mr. de Souza’s commentary about Betras.

I am at a loss as to how public officials have no remorse and fail to realize that they are held to a higher standard. I worked in your mayor’s election campaign because I believed he was the best candidate to help the Cottage Grove area to survive. It was not very long before I realized I had made a gross mistake in judgment for my neighborhood.

I have to admire the Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman for his ethical position. The law is something to be upheld by all of us. Public officials, however, are held to an even higher standard – unless you happen to be a public official who sees nothing wrong with remaining in a public position after confessing to criminal activity. When you consider that the mayor is an attorney, it becomes even more egregious. It indicates a disdain for the voting, taxpaying public. The arrogance of expecting to retain a public position of trust is appalling.

Wake up, Youngstown. I was big enough to admit to my error in judgment. You may want to think about finding someone else worthy of being your mayor.

Delores Womack, Warren

Oakhill plea deals are black mark on DeWine

It is over for Mahon- ing County former Auditor Michael Sciortino and Youngstown Mayor John McNally, and it’s over for Attorney General Mike DeWine. As a Republican, I have lost faith in the system. All these years of tearing apart a community for naught. Justice has not been served to the citizens of Mahoning County. All of these men should have faced a trial.

Simply put, the government screwed up and this is a black mark for DeWine’s political future. We placed our faith in him, and instead it has become a political chess game with the local “Businessman 1” making all of the right moves.

If this is one of our local ordinary working-class citizens, there would have been no plea deals or finagling all of these years. We would have gone to jail without collecting $200 instead of a slap on the wrist.

Sciortino mocked DeWine and thumbed his nose at all of us.

Frank Gene McCullough, Poland

Cafaro deserves kudos for his good works in Valley

I am writing regard- ing Bertram de Souza’s many columns concerning the Oakhill Renaissance Place. It seems that his personal vendetta against Anthony M. Cafaro Sr. and The Cafaro Co. continues even as the Oakhill case continues to crumble.

It is incomprehensible to me that there is such a lack of respect for a well-known hometown person such as Mr. Cafaro and his company that has brought prosperity to our Valley by way of jobs for residents of Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

The Eastwood Mall alone makes jobs for our families, not to mention the many spin-off jobs from having the mall here. When I pick up my copy of The Vindicator, I never seem to find anywhere in its pages a “Thank You” for the jobs that the Cafaro Co. has brought and continues to bring to our Valley. Nor do I ever see a “Thank You” for the many donations that the Cafaros have made to many of our Valley’s schools, churches and charities.

How about having some good old-fashioned pride for your hometown.

John F. Kiktavy, Brookfield

Charter schools doom public schools in Ohio

As H. G. Wells once put it, history is “a race between education and catastrophe”.

An ongoing catastrophe is occurring right now with our neighborhood Ohio public schools. Charter schools syphon nearly a billion dollars a year into their “for-profit” educational charade. The charter schools are failing Ohio’s students, but they are not failing their primary mission: diverting Ohio’s tax dollars from neighborhood schools – at the expense of our children. Nearly $4 billion of taxpayers’ money has been redirected from our neighborhood public schools to charter schools during the last decade.

According to an August 2015 report by the think tank Innovation Ohio, traditional public schools are receiving $515 million less in state funding than five years ago. Over that same period, funding for charter schools increased by 27 percent.

Lakeview sustained a $273,000 reduction in state money diverted to charter schools this year alone. With that money, Lakeview could have purchased over 900 Chrome Books, almost one for every child in kindergarten through eighth grade. With that money, over a two-year period we could purchase one such tablet for every student in the district. The same $273,000 would pay eight new teachers’ salaries or purchase three buses.

While charter schools are financed through the state, their money is deducted from public school allocations. Lakeview scores higher on all state testing and graduates a greater percentage of students than any charter school our students attend.

My frustration is that Lake-view receives state funding totaling $3,468 per student but pays charters $8,203 for every Lakeview student attending a charter school. This is $4,555 more per student than we received from Ohio. Charter schools are grossing a substantial profit while earning abysmal scores on tests and attendance goals.

Lakeview is not the only local district where this atrocity is occurring. I urge you to inquire with your district superintendent or treasurer to discover how much of your tax money is lost to these educational impostors.

Robert A. Wilson, Cortland

Wilson is superintendent of the Lakeview Local School District.