LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

State group urges ‘yes’ for TPS

10/22/2012

The Ohio School Boards Association encourages Toledo Public Schools residents to vote yes on Issue 20 (“Yes on TPS tax,” editorial, Oct. 14).

Passing the levy can help give the district the resources it needs to build on the success of its historic transformation plan. The 10-year, 4.9-mill levy would cost about $150 a year on a $100,000 home, or a little over 40 cents a day. It would ensure that the district has the funds it needs to continue transforming its schools.

Click to email a Letter to the Editor

TPS heeded the public’s call for more-efficient operations by generating savings from the transformation plan and reducing the loss of students to charter and parochial schools. These efficiencies enabled the district to reduce the original amount of the levy request and its length.

Under the plan, the district has created neighborhood elementary schools, offered distance learning and early high school options, established alternative school programs to help struggling students, and developed an inclusion model for special education.

Passing the levy can help the district finish work on the transformation plan, which was built on the idea that schools are vital to the health of the community. Strong schools protect home values, attract employers, and contribute to the financial health of a community and its families.

A vote for a stronger Toledo school system is a vote for a stronger Toledo.

RICHARD LEWIS

Executive Director

Ohio School Boards Association Columbus

History to prompt a ‘no’ on TPS levy

Your endorsement, with reservations, of the TPS levy reminded me of articles The Blade has published the past year.

The TPS promise to introduce appealing features and that the new money would not go to salaries is similar to some school officials’ promise to preserve the former Libbey High School.

Thanks for the reminder. I will be voting no on Issue 20.

ROBERT SOPHER

Larchwood Lane

Parents need to work with teachers

If schools and the legal system empowered teachers and administrators more, Issue 20 would get my vote. Unfortunately, pandering to parents has caused a mediocre level of education in this country.

If parents keep interfering with teachers and administrators as much as they do, let them solely cover the increase.

In the private sector I am told every day to do more with less. Perhaps schools and the public sector need to act in this way too.

AMY WEXLER

Holly Hill Drive

City workers should be treated equally

Why should City of Toledo managers and directors get an 18 to 20 percent increase in their pay levels when the rest of the city employees get a 3 percent raise if they are lucky (“Council debates increasing executive pay levels,” Oct. 3)?

All city workers should be treated the same, no matter their position or department.

CARYN LESAGE

Edison Street