Today is election day and those of us who live in Cincinnati get to vote for our mayor and nine members of city council, or, as I refer to them as The Three Stooges Cubed. I don't know what these people have or don't have on the ball, but from the way this city is run, I would say, don't have much on the ball is closer to reality. We do get to vote on some important issues this year and because of the issues on the ballot, I am going to cast my vote.
I have lived in this city since 1942 except for the two years in the army in the mid 60s. Over that time, I have watched the migration out of the city itself. Families looking for a nice place to live with a good school system have left the city of Cincinnati. At one time, the Cincinnati Public Schools were very good. But, with the quality of leadership in the education process declining and the money to support a superior education system not there, the city of Cincinnati, like other cities in Ohio, lost population to the surrounding areas . Money for public education is tied to the property tax, and as a result, the areas with the more affluent families and the bigger properties have the money to support a better quality school system, and teachers are attracted to the better systems.
My wife and I lived in the city, but navigated around the public school system by placing our children in alternative programs. One alternative program, the German-English Bilingual Alternative School (GEBAS) became the most popular school on our street. At one point, there were so many children on our street going to the GEBAS program that I thought they were preparing them for the Fourth Reich. Today, parents line up in the rain and cold to enroll their children in this program because it is so good.
It is my opinion, that if the funding of education was changed from the property tax, that a better school system could be built in Cincinnati and with the better system, attract families back to the city. But, that is just my opinion, as I only have those parents camping out in the rain and cold, to put their children in a superior program, to make my point. If you build a better public education system, families will come.
Back to the economy tomorrow, so, do your civic duty and go vote. A lot of men and women gave their lives so we could vote, so vote.
Stay tuned.
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2 comments:
Unfortunately, Cincinnati is not the only place in this country with poor schools, but this is also becoming the norm. Ask any teacher who has been in the classroom for the last 20 years what kind of changes they see in students overall. Until America realizes it is not as great as we think, there will not be much of a change. The division of social classes in this country is getting wider and wider every year. I firmly believe the middle class in any society will propel it forward...and we are losing. The aristocracy in this country prefer to see no changes take place. It seems to me, a representative government is not working.
Schools: the basis of an informed electorate. Declining quality of education I have thought was the way for the "right" to gain control, the less we all know, the more easily wingnuts can influence some of us. Ours was the last generation to actually have CIVICS classes, almost effective history classes with books not effected by "needs" of Texas educational systems. My job entails working with quite a few much younger staff, and I am amazed at the lack of comprehension of history and cause and effect by otherwise intelligent people. Moving away from poor school systems is endemic and an indicator that they are winning, and Malthus was right...
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