The Aftermath

After waiting until the end of the week, it is time to weigh in on the idiocy of Toledoians. Apparently, according to Toledo's own dog training aide:

Voters saw through the overblown charges against the mayor, which were all the more regrettable because they were racially tinged and largely fomented by someone who lives 750 miles from here.

Silly me, I didn't realize that all of the sudden the Rev. Rose's ideas were "racially tinged." As I remember, the Blade and city leaders have looked on his ideas as the truth from above. At least, unitl he spoke out on their pet projects.

To the editors of the Blade, I'm going to seek to enlighten you - something you won't receive from TPS. Using the ballot box to "express your displeasure" is the way our founding fathers set up this country. I'm sure that the newspaper would rather the taxes, mandates, and city life be mandated by their selected few - without public input or protest. After all:

Well-funded schools and a reasonable array of city services are vital to the quality of life in this urban environment and, perhaps more importantly, to the ongoing quest to lure new businesses and families to the city.

Here's the big secret - it's not well funded schools that attract businesses and individuals to the city, it's the quality of the schools. And, as I'm sure you'll all be surprised to learn, there is no positive corrolation between funding and excellence - if there was, how do private schools (with far less funding per student) continue to stand heads and shoulders above public schools? But wait, there's more - the "reasonable array" of city seriveces don't include $10k showers for the mayor, bike paths near the mayor's house, a city funded vacant shopping center, or

No, a business looks for a location with low taxes, a minimal array of fees (let's talk trash), and minimal governmental red tape. Toledo has just the opposite - a mayor and city council that meddles in what businesses should locate to the city, and then regulates their every move. Fees in every area from building erection to trash removal have been rising faster than inflation, and the tax structure in this city makes it unprofitable to run a business here. I expect more business to leave this area, along with many of those who make the city run - what's left of the middle class.

I listen to people complain about the health of others. This city is sick, from years of feasting on the tax dollars and passing it out the other end to the residents. What this city needs is an enforced diet, and the citizens of the city just voted to take another trip to the all-you-can-eat buffet. Someone call a plumber, the turd that you'll get back is going to be mammoth.

Right Wing Toledo

The War on Choice

Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Comrade Ted has declared war on the Pro-Choice faction of Ohio – those who which to choose their children’s education. Appearing yesterday on Brian Wilson’s show, the governor decried the voucher program in general, and indicated that only the Cleveland program would survive his administration.

Comrade Ted has declared that they only “choice” you have is limited to selecting your school board. Don’t get me wrong, the school board choice is extremely important, and kudos to Maggie Thurber and Lisa Renee for their board project. But, even if you get every board member you want, the courts and state legislature take a large degree of control away from the local boards – mandating education of some theories (evolution for example) and forbidding the teaching of others. I suppose your choice doesn’t really extend to education after all, only the choice of the liberal elite matters.

Furthermore, why is Cleveland so special? Perhaps because a large, Democratic-voting block of minority parents receive vouchers – to send their children to private and parochial schools at government expense? As I recall, the Cleveland program was indicated as a “trial” program. Well, the trial’s run a while now, it’s time to end it, or expand it state-wide. It sounds like Comrade Ted has a problem with consistency.

For those of you about to suggest that the issue is “means-testing,” the Governor stated his opposition, quite clearly, to the use of “public dollars” in any private institution. I wonder, does the State of Ohio provide grants to any private institution – or is every state dollar spent by the state through governmental agencies. If not, what explains this inconsistency – perhaps the support of the teachers’ unions for Comrade Ted?

If this was really about reducing monies to the schools, let’s take a look at that. Reducing funding to the schools, according to Comrade Ted, will reduce the amount available to educate students. In other words, it would reduce the number of dollars per student. Unfortunately for Comrade Ted, that isn’t the case (perhaps he had the benefit of public school education). The voucher does not pay out more than a private or parochial school’s tuition – which is less than the amount appropriated for the same student in the public school system. Thus, while the total dollars are reduced, so is the student count – and effectively raising the funding per student to the public schools. If you doubt that private schools spend less, compare their tuition rates to the amount spent per student by TPS.

As a basic example to prove my theory – assume a hypothetical public school system of 10 students, and a total funding of $10,000 (numbers simplified to keep the math easier). The total spent per student is ($10,000 / 10 =) $1,000. Now, one local family wants to send their child to a local private school, with tuition of $500. The $500 is subtracted from the total budget, leaving $9,500, and the student is subtracted from the enrollment, leaving 9 students to educate. Now, the total spent per student is $1,055.56 ($950 / 9). Correct me if I’m wrong, but that is more than $1,000. Savings on the expense side would be even greater in a large school system, where teacher layoffs could divert funding to computers, new programs, and such. So, the “reducing the amount of money” argument doesn’t wash. Hmmm, could the teachers’ unions be behind this theory. Anyone, anyone?

Margaritas ante Porcos,
Right Wing Toledo

Pro-Choice Doesn’t Extend to Education

In his State of the State speech, Ted Strickland announced his intention to eliminate private school vouchers for students in failing schools. In the very same speech, Comrade Ted proposed an increase in state-sponsored health-care for all children. Said state-sponsored health care includes, presumably, abortions. So, in Ted’s world, a prospective parent should have the choice – regardless of economic circumstances – of aborting their child but not the choice – regardless of economic circumstances – of how and where any child they so graciously allow to live should be educated.

The inconvenient facts about Ted’s position on abortion are all too clear. While serving in Congress, the governor voted several times in favor of governmental funding of abortions, and even federal funding of research into the “abortion pill.” He has received unquestioning support from NARAL, and he has promised to veto any pro-life legislation that comes from our state representatives.

In addition, Comrade Ted received a 100% rating from the NEA, and was heartily endorsed by the teachers’ unions. Those unions have a long-standing opposition to private and religious schools, or any competition to a state-sponsored monopoly on education – a monopoly that would insure their jobs regardless of ability. So, political payback required the governor to being quickly to remove the biggest sources of competition to our failing school system – private and religious schools.

I find it interesting that the governor heartily endorses using my taxpayer dollars to fund something I’m against – abortion, but wishes to deny it for something to which liberals object. And before quoting the First Amendment at me, I heartily suggest everyone re-read that one – there is no “wall of separation”, excepting that the government shall mandate no religion on the people. (In fact, this phrase derives from a letter from Jefferson to Danbury, Connecticut, Baptists.) Red Ted also plans on eliminating the ability of for-profit companies to run charter schools. Because we all know that for-profit companies will compete to gain more students (hence profits), and in order to compete they might well provide a superior education at a lower price than their public school counterparts.

My recommendation to our Komissar? Let citizens carry their own tax dollars to the school of their choice. If parents want to take their children to private school, why should they continue to pay double? Introduce more competition to the schools, not less – competition drives excellence, no matter what the self-styled experts at the American Psychological Association (the same folks who published an article claiming adult-child sex isn’t harmful) say. After all, isn’t this all about the children? How can we, in good conscience, deny them the education they deserve – instead of the one that the government has been giving them?

Margaritas ante Porcos,
Right Wing Toledo

The Real "Cash Cow"

In an article in today’s Blade, the Toledo Federation of Teacher’s president Francine Lawrence accused the state of setting up a “cash cow for church schools and private schools.” Her argument is with a program that allows students in failing schools to receive vouchers for attending private schools, both religious and non-religious. Interim Superintendent John Foley agreed, stating that vouchers were “another way for the state to harm urban schools, and not give us the resources to get better…” This is a rare show of unity between the TPS administration and the TFT, indeed. The real reason, is of course money. TPS wants to be the only calf at the cash cow’s udder. The reason that parents would change schools in order to be eligible for vouchers, according to both the TPS and TFT, is greed. Therefore, according to the twin paragons of the education system, the state must cease giving back taxpayers their own money.

What should be alarming to the public school system is not that parents are transferring their children in order to get vouchers, but rather that they so want to escape TPS, that they’re willing to sacrifice 2 years of their children’s education in order to obtain a better one. With about 5% of the eligible students taking vouchers in the first year of the program, Toledo outpaces districts around the country offering vouchers for failing schools. Apparently, even in the “non-failing” schools, the students are not learning enough – an indictment against the system as a whole.

Parents are fleeing public schools for private centers of learning where far less is spent each year per student. Yet, the only solution to the problem, according to both the teachers and the administration, is more money. If money were really the solution, than our students would lead the world, yet nothing is farther from the truth. Instead, parents are sending their children to locations where dedicated teachers (making far, far less money than their public-school counterparts) teach to a level above the minimum. To criticize the parents for doing anything possible to make sure their children receive the best possible education is insane – the sort of insanity that can only be propagated by a socialist-type school system. And in such a system, the cream doesn’t rise to the top, it is spoiled by the sour milk.

Margaritas ante Porcos,
Right Wing Toledo

Bringing out the crystal ball for 2007.

Welcome to the New Year. With everyone making their 2007 predictions, I thought it appropriate to add a few of my own:

• Unemployment in Ohio will rise above 6%, and quite possibly 7%. Between the new minimum wage, and the Dems running the state, this will be unavoidable.
• There will be no border fence with Mexico. Mistress Nancy has to curry favor with her base, and the illegal immigrant lobby still has sway in the party of the left.
• Hillary will wait as long as possible before announcing her candidacy for President. Not only to amass a war chest, but to keep the media focus on herself and away from darlings like Obama.
• No ground will be broken on a new arena, despite raising the hotel tax. Instead, expect another study. In the meantime, one wonders if Perrysburg will attempt another project, perhaps “Bass Pro Arena?”
• Carty and City Council will institute fees on garbage pickup, raise fees on police and fire responding to accidents, and not repeal the “temporary” 3/4% income tax designed to pay for those services.
• The Mayor will attempt to create at least one new bike path under the media’s radar, despite the deficit the city will be running under.
• The Erie Street Market will remain closed for “renovations,” unless by some miracle it is sold to a private developer.
• The Steam Plant project will show no visible signs of progress, and be steadfastly ignored by the Blade. Expect a dissolution of the David Ball/Jim Jackson development corporation, and the monies paid to have disappeared.
• Southwyck will remain a standard bearer on deadmalls.com.
• Word will begin to get out that the Toledo Public Schools’ building project is massively over budget. Blame will be assigned to thieves stealing copper pipes and wire, rather than the mismanagement. Paying for the cost overruns will be assigned to Toledo taxpayers.
• A bitter labor dispute at “One of America’s Great Newspapers” will drag on for several months. The workers will be reinstated to their jobs, but no resolution will be achieved. The resulting strike may finish the newspaper off. Good riddance.

As always, these predictions are not offers to sell, buy, or barter. If you base your future, financial plans, or life’s happiness on this column, you deserve what you get.

Margaritas ante Porcos,
Right Wing Toledo

2006: Toledo's Top Moments

Well, with the end of the year approaching, it’s time to take a brief look back at those top moments that seem to define Toledo, in all it’s glory. So, in no particular order:

• Tom Noe convicted on 29 counts of embezzlement: He did the crime, now he’ll do the time. But what defines Toledo even more was the Blade’s crusade against the man, noting at every opportunity that he is a Republican. Bernadette, look out.
• Councilman Robert McCloskey indicted on federal bribery counts – bribes he took while being investigated for taking bribes. This time, however, the local daily failed to picture every prominent Democrat on the front page under the headline “INDICTED.” A guilty plea would follow.
• The Blade locks out workers in an effort to gain concessions. Despite a recent court decision that the lock-out is illegal, the newspaper continues to keep its workers in the cold. Local politicians, always outspoken on union rights, remain silent on an issue that may deny them the endorsements they so cravenly seek.
• Mayor Carlton Finkbeiner offers what amounts to a bribe to keep Toledo Public School Superintendent Eugene Sanders in Toledo. Sanders (to his questionable credit) refuses the bribe, but takes a hefty compensation package, exiting his contract two years early to become a paid consultant for the Toledo schools. The next day, he accepts a job with the Cleveland Public Schools. Never saw that one coming.
• Mayor Carlton Finkbeiner vetoes an exception to Toledo’s living wage ordnance, over 7 cents. Perhaps that COSTCO was the employer, and non-union, played a small role.
• Mayor Carlton Finkbeiner gets into a battle of wills with WSPD program director Brian Wilson, after calling morning host Fred LeFebvre a liar. WSPD is subsequently cut off from all communication from the city, including emergency services. I suppose Hizzhonor’s honor is more important than the city’s safety.
• The city goes months without a contract with their safety workers. Again, local Democrats are silent on the issue.
• The Mayor personally works to create jobs in Toledo, in the plumbing (via a shower) and electrical (tree and bridge lights) trades. That he does so with minimal or no oversight from City Council is a mere technicality. I guess if we have to see our Mayor, he should be clean. The Mayor and City Council rubber stamp David Ball and Jimmy Jackson’s plans for the former Toledo Edison Steam Plant, despite a competing plan. Five months later, the progress is evident every time one drives by.
• Toledo elects a full slate of Democrats, and helps put Ohio in the enviable position of having a Socialist governor, a minimum wage law that allows anyone to see your financial data, and allows the sale of tobacco, but not the use of it anywhere someone from the “public” might visit (this includes your babysitter, folks.) And yet, after re-electing the same old people, the citizens of this city complain that nothing gets done.

Well, enough of looking back. Soon, I’ll publish my 2007 predictions for the city, state, and nation. And no, I’m not giving a date for TomKat’s divorce.

Margaritas ante Porcos,
Right Wing Toledo