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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > September > 13
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Martin Gottlieb: Divide on health care comes down to dreams
One point about the health care issue has come in for way too little attention: President Barack Obama’s promise to pay for his plan — as opposed to borrowing the money — is a radical departure.
Presidents don’t do this. George W. Bush wouldn’t have dreamed of paying — in this sense — for his prescription drug addition to Medicare; that initiative was about two-thirds as expensive as the Obama plan that opponents are calling a government takeover.
Bush also wouldn’t have dreamed of paying for any wars, which are more expensive. On the contrary, he was busily cutting taxes.
Of course, many people don’t believe Obama
when he says he will pay for his plan, not let it add to the deficit. They note that nonpartisan analysis shows that pending health care bills in Congress would add to it. But he keeps repeating his pledge as publicly as possible.
The fact needs to be understood when discussion turns to whether he can get Republicans on board.
Tough job. After all, some sort of tax increase would be necessary.
Opposition to tax hikes has been the single best unifier of the Republicans. Some Republicans in Congress have said publicly that the tax issue alone will cause nearly solid Republican opposition.
So a lot of what was said and implied over the last few days is `not to be taken too seriously.
To the naked ear, Obama sounded Wednesday as if he’s trying to get Republican support. He embraced a John McCain proposal and mentioned other Republicans favorably. He bowed in the direction of Republican efforts to reduce the exposure of doctors to lawsuits. He repeatedly tried to place himself between the extremes of left and right.
But, in truth, he was mainly trying to unite Democrats by allowing those from relatively conservative districts to point to his accommodating attitude when they confront their own constituents.
Meanwhile, the Republicans, too, were trying to give the impression that they are open to negotiation. Their House leader, John Boehner, representing rural and suburban areas around Dayton, as well as part of the city, wrote of “our offer to work together on common-sense reforms we can all agree on.”
Rep. Mike Turner, a Republican representing the bulk of Montgomery County and northern Warren County, said he supports Obama’s plan to prevent insurance companies from excluding people because of pre-existing conditions. But he worries about other elements of the plan.
Fellow Republican Steve Austria, representing Greene County and Springfield, spoke specifically of a disposable part of the president’s plan, the “public option,” under which some people could buy insurance from the government.
“I think that anyone who followed the federal government’s bungling of the Cash for Clunkers programs would have serious concerns with how bureaucrats in Washington would mange their health care.”
(Of course, anybody with those concerns wouldn’t have to buy into the plan. (Anyway, doesn’t dealing in the vapid old cliches about governmental incompetence seem kind of odd for a representative of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base? So far, the Air Force hasn’t been privatized.)
Sen. George Voinovich was himself, focusing on the details in a statement before the speech.
“To date, many of his (Obama’s) ideas have lacked vital details and have left me with more questions than answers.”
He’s one guy who has to be taken relatively seriously when he suggests his mind is open. And he’s never been a purist about taxes. But, still, he’s not being watched in Washington as somebody likely to cross over.
Apparently sensitive to the charge of being the party of “No,” in the grip of their extremists, the Republicans are taking pains lately to point out what they’re for: insurance for people with pre-existing conditions; some protection for people who lose their jobs, and more.
But they’re not talking about aggressive efforts to achieve universal coverage. That’s the Ted Kennedy dream, not the Republican dream.
After it’s enacted, whenever that may be, its existence will be no more controversial than Social Security or Medicare. The rest of the affluent world already takes it for granted.
But for now that’s pretty much what the fight is about. Either you’ve got your heart set on the goal of all American having decent health coverage — complete with the costs of that effort — or not.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Health Care, Martin Gottlieb, Miami Valley Politics, National Politics, Ohio politics
Editorial: Dayton still needs Catholic schools
The problems in Dayton’s public schools have been a boon for the city’s Catholic schools. But there’s a crunch coming.
For years, Dayton families that weren’t satisfied with their children’s public schools have flocked to Catholic schools. Since 2006, the state has helped send some families there, giving low-income students who left certifiably poor performing schools “vouchers” to help pay tuition.
Today, 12,685 Ohio kids statewide attend private schools using this financial assistance. Next year, the number of students in the program likely will hit the state’s cap of 14,000.
Then lawmakers will have to ask:
Should the program be expanded? Scaled back? Discontinued? Is the state getting its money’s worth?
The local Catholic network will be all over the debate because its schools have become so dependent on the state’s money.
Under the voucher law, students assigned to low-scoring city schools are eligible for up to $5,000 in aide to offset private school tuition. Lawmakers — mainly Republicans — reasoned that poor, not just middle-class, families deserve good educational options for their children.
Today Dayton ranks third behind Cleveland and Columbus for having the most kids using vouchers.
St. Helen and Holy Angels schools each have about a quarter of their students paying some of their tuition using vouchers — and they are the least hooked on the state’s money.
In four of the eight Dayton Catholic elementary schools, more than half of the students get vouchers. St. Rita School has an astonishing 76 percent of students getting aide. The practice is creeping into Catholic high schools and suburban Catholic schools, too.
In 2007, suburban Catholic schools, all together, had about 30 voucher students. Now there are 142. Kettering’s Ascension School, for instance, has 16 percent on vouchers; St. Albert School is at 7 percent; and Alter High School 6 percent.
The city’s two Catholic high schools — Chaminade Julienne with 16 percent on vouchers and Carroll at 7 percent — now have to consider vouchers a critical part of their budgets. Same with Dayton Christian High School in Miami Twp. (at 7 percent).
How Dayton’s Catholic schools got to this place is an interesting story. As charter schools exploded here in the late 1990s — turning Dayton into the nation’s No. 1 charter school city for a time — Catholic schools weren’t initially impacted.
Very few of their students transferred to the new free public alternative schools that were independent of the local school district.
In time, though, families who were choosing a school for the first time began opting for the free charter schools. While Catholic schools retained the families that were invested because older children had attended them, the tuition was too much for those who hadn’t made that commitment.
In the end, charter schools unintentionally punished not only low-scoring traditional public schools — a slew of which closed as charters grew — but also squeezed well-regarded Catholic schools.
If, because of the state’s budget problems, or because a new generation of students isn’t eligible for vouchers (this could happen if the public school they’re supposed to attend improves), that leaves Catholic schools hurting for kids and money. Important neighborhood anchors could close.
Catholic schools are an important option for Dayton families. The voucher program unquestionably has been a financial help to the schools, but, at the same time, they have been there for a long time for children who otherwise would have been sitting in really awful schools. That history can’t be forgotten.
Ohio, of course, can’t afford to operate an ever growing parallel system to its public schools. There does have to be some limit to how much money it sends to Catholic schools, especially if public schools are getting their acts together.
But Catholic schools have been there, and still are there, for many families who have every right to insist that their public school option is not nearly good enough.
Meanwhile, in the big education picture, the voucher program remains small.
Dayton legislators should begin now to push for support for the program. It’s plainly clear Dayton’s Catholic school network cannot survive without vouchers.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott
