It's inane to close good schools

3/11/2010

Toledo Public Schools have the unenviable job of trying to balance a budget in this terrible economy.

Toledo Technology Academy and Toledo Early College High School are two of the few schools rated excellent in the system, but management has proposed closing them as part of the budget fix (“Huge outcry heard over TPS plan for cutbacks,” March 5).

People with such logic should not be responsible for anything involving the education of Toledo's children.

Ted Sweet

Fallbrook Road

Toledo Public Schools' idea to cut its $30 million deficit is to abolish athletics, close Libbey High School, and end busing for high school students, and for grade and middle school students who live less than two miles from school.

What a brilliant way to end the deficit. No athletics means no scholarships to college for TPS football, baseball, and basketball players (“Sports cuts are called a ‘death sentence,' ” March 5).

I agree that high school students could use the exercise by walking to school. But having grade school and middle school students walk as much as two miles will have pedophiles rubbing their hands in anticipation.

This proposal may be a trick to get Toledoans to vote for the school levy.

Ray Patrick

North St. Clair Street

Drastic cuts proposed by Toledo Schools Superintendent John Foley to help the district crawl out of its desperate financial hole outline a lose-lose scenario for students and residents of Toledo.

You can't help but think that some of the superintendent's bitterness about not having the contract he had hoped for has leaked into his professional judgment. He won't be around next year to head a district where students must walk to a school where they cannot play sports.

Why not stick out his tongue at the Board of Education by offering proposals that would unquestioningly devastate the district?

I only hope board members look past these scare tactics and self-serving recommendations.

Eric Pilcher

Robinwood Avenue

Here we go again: Toledo Public Schools complains and the public is tired of its whining.

If you close Libbey High School, in a year or so will you want to build another new school? It's the same sob story: that the children will suffer. That's bologna.

Maybe we should refer to our schools as the Gimme, Gimme, Gimme TPS.

Jamie Newton

Morrison Drive

Would consumers continue to buy a product that is low-rated at an ever-increasing price? Of course not, but isn't this what is happening at Toledo Public Schools?

A TPS education is a terrible product that no one wants but some who cannot afford to escape to the suburbs are forced to buy at increasing prices.

A crummy product is cramming its price increase down the hapless electorate's throat. That sounds like a monopoly.

The value of a TPS education can be confirmed by an incident a few years back, when a candidate for superintendent didn't get the job because he refused to send his own child to a school in the district.

The latest TPS scheme is a 0.75 percent earned income tax levy. That amount sounds small and harmless, but it could increase your taxes for an inferior product.

Educated, productive, high-income people would leave, and you would be left with a core of people who cannot fund public services but only consume them. The result would be the Detroitization of Toledo.

Stephen G. Spitler

Meadowwood Drive

Neither Toledo Mayor Mike Bell nor the Toledo Board of Education has made the case for a tax increase. As long as the city spends tax dollars on affirmative action and the youth commission, and gives pay raises to a few insiders, I cannot believe Mayor Bell is serious about the deficit.

All of a sudden there is a $30 million deficit at TPS and sports will be cut. How about cutting the babysitting classes, such as fashion marketing? They are field trips that usually cost more than real classes.

Mr. Foley should look at the curriculum. Not my wallet.

Mike Weigandt

Oak Grove Place

Aren't the phrases “death sentence” and “mass exodus” in your article about the proposed elimination of sports a bit melodramatic? How many parents pay to educate their children outside of their school district?

As for students who don't transfer being more susceptible to temptation on the streets, school athletics didn't prevent the altercation at Westfield Franklin Park.

Without school athletic programs, parents might have to take a more active role in the supervision and development of their children. What a radical idea.

If, as a school athletic director said, “you learn as much from athletics as you do in school,” that's a pitiful assessment of our educational system and the mentality and values of the people who say that.

When did the importance of playing ball take precedence over scholastic achievement? Saying that athletic programs teach time management and teamwork is a feeble, pathetic argument. These activities are already common practice in most households.

Let those who scream for athletic frills pay for them through a surcharge for parents whose children participate in these extracurricular activities. I regret this expression, but perhaps these people need the reality of putting their money where their mouth is.

Betty Wisberger

Temperance

Why would Toledo Public Schools administrators consider cutting their budget by withdrawing services and programs that support students, when they can make administrative cuts that would have more-immediate and longer-lasting savings? No one reports the number of administrators, staff, and teachers who are eligible for retirement.

It's odd that the district would eliminate athletics and busing, but keep funding courses and schools with low student populations.

TPS needs to look at its administrative structure before it cuts programs that directly affect students. Cuts to classrooms and students should be last on the list of areas to reduce.

Jody Carroll

Perrysburg

Daylight Savings Time is a thoughtless energy-wasting measure. Kids will be in the dark on the streets before daylight.

Schools should be as concerned about this aspect of students' safety as they are about the increased costs of running schools in the dark.

Vincent P. Yancey

Curtice

Why does the U.S. Department of Commerce deem it necessary to send out a separate letter to let people know that they will be getting a 2010 Census form in the mail in about a week?

This is a waste of taxpayers' money.

Marsha Horner

Holland