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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 > 2010 > February
February 2010
Editorial: Dayton airport poised to get even better
Iftikhar Ahmad, the ambitious director of Dayton’s airport, is — to no one’s shock — leaving.
Though he hasn’t yet nailed down his contract in New Orleans — so theoretically the deal still could fall apart — he appears to be on to bigger things.
Mr. Ahmad, 43, has had remarkable accomplishments in his short tenure in Dayton.
He took over an airport in 2006 that was struggling, having first lost its status as a passenger hub and then as a cargo hub. The fees it charged airlines were high; its facilities were dated and dusty; and nearby local governments were looking for ways to make sure that the regional asset didn’t grow because they were so angry at airport administrators.
Mr. Ahmad, who has been in the sights of recruiters before, is leaving an airport that has sharply cut fees to airlines. At the same time, passenger traffic has gone up steadily and significantly.
And the facilities have been spiffed up and modernized.
There’s a new air traffic control tower and parking garage being built. A new hotel is on the drawing board to replace a musty, money-losing one.
The hope of bringing companies to the developed and undeveloped land nearby hasn’t been realized, but the economy has not been on Mr. Ahmad’s side.
If there’s a takeaway from his tenure, it is that Dayton can attract young, talented professionals who want to show what they’re made of. The challenges at the airport were, and still are, big, but there are smart people who have creative ideas and are willing to work hard to make them happen.
(Mr. Ahmad wanted to get to the point where he could afford to pay airlines to land in Dayton, rather than charge them. That would be unprecedented in the industry, he has said.)
Mr. Ahmad owes Dayton to the degree that it offered him an opportunity. But the community owes him for being sharply focused and for acting with urgency.
The airport continues to be an economic development opportunity because of the space that’s there and because of its easy access for both trucks and trains.
Of course, if passenger service isn’t protected, that could become a stumbling block to companies that want to grow and to compete nationally and internationally.
NCR’s Bill Nuti, when he was justifying moving his company’s headquarters to suburban Atlanta, complained about the lack of flights in and out of Dayton. Then and now that argument was exaggerated, but it does have to be responded to.
(Atlanta’s airport is so clogged that, if you’re talking about how long it takes to get door-to-door, flying out of Dayton and dealing with a connection can be faster than navigating Hartsfield.)
Mr. Ahmad has been valuable also because of his almost pitch-perfect marketing. He is candid and analytical in his selling of Dayton, even as he has been an aggressive and unabashed promoter.
The work in New Orleans isn’t going to be easy. The Times-Picayune said Mr. Ahmad is moving from an airport that is “too big for its customer base” — how’s that for a good problem to have — to one that is “seen as too small and has limited space to expand.”
Meanwhile, the aviation board there has applied to be one of five airports nationally that could be privatized, a more common situation in Europe than in the United States.
If Mr. Ahmad negotiates a contract that preserves his position even in the face of a contractor taking over, that could pave the way for him to pull down more money from a private business. He earned just shy of $124,000 in Dayton.
Mr. Ahmad’s successor has a tough act to follow. But he or she will be taking over an asset that is positioned well.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: City of Dayton, Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Local Business, Transportation
TweetScott Elliott: Parents might not favor early-college route
Almost a decade ago, I was at a high school reform seminar at which a panel of experts threw out a radical idea — end high school at 10th grade.
That notion actually drew a few chuckles. The idea didn’t sound very practical.
Yet, last week President Barack Obama made a pretty similar proposal, and he was not kidding. Obama wants to allow kids who test out of their junior and senior years to go straight to a community college.
Here’s the big question: Will parents embrace this option?
I have my doubts.
The experts on that panel long ago (including one who had been part of a national commission examining the value of the high school senior year) had lots of ideas for what kids could do while skipping their junior and senior years.
Some of the more interesting ones that I can remember:
• Work. They could pursue paying internships in professions that interest them. This would help them choose careers and see the practical value of the skills they’d learn in college. Companies who’d hire them could scout for future talent.
• Volunteer. Understaffed, but important, nonprofit service providers would benefit from their labor, and the kids would see community needs up close, perhaps spurring them to remain active in civic life.
• Travel. They could travel or study abroad. The popularity of study-abroad programs speaks to the value of experiences that introduce young people to different ways of life and broaden their horizons.
• Move on with school. They could go straight to college. For those who are very academically oriented, this option would allow them to move ahead to a community college as an interim step or straight to universities for the especially gifted.
The presentation was followed by a thoughtful discussion that challenged the value of high school beyond 10th grade. The experts argued students can, and often do, easily complete all their graduation requirements by their junior year. Some then mark time by taking courses they don’t really need. Others start college-level courses early. Why not just let them move on, the experts asked?
Jokingly, I asked the panel how they expected these theoretical future high schools that end at 10th grade to win football games and hold proms without juniors and seniors?
As the audience laughed, I noticed none of the panelists cracked a smile. Finally, one leaned into the microphone and said, “Honestly, that is our biggest problem. We can’t get parents to accept the idea that high school should be radically different. So many of the parents can’t let go of their dreams of Suzy in her prom dress and Bobby as captain of the football team.”
The fact that most adults have a common, if outdated, school experience is often a problem. Ask a teacher about the parents who complain the kids aren’t learning the way they were taught. Or ask a superintendent who has had to campaign for new school buildings against the argument that “that school was good enough for me.” If there were options for kids to think differently about their educations, some would probably jump at the chance. But if it meant changing the basic nature of high school, would most parents balk?
Even if kids in the future could somehow be guaranteed a better education and better life chances by taking one of these alternative routes, how many parents would pick that option if it meant giving up stuff like sports and the prom? You might be surprised.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Education, Higher Ed, Scott Elliott
TweetEditorial: Suburb councils not looking great
Many communities confront problems these days that defy the efforts of local officials to solve them. Sometimes, though, the local officials themselves are the problem. Or among them.
This observation is not made with an eye on the policy views of those officials. Typically, at the local level, reasonable people confront real issues pragmatically.
No, the issue here is the personal behavior of the officials.
• In Trotwood, the mayor has resigned under state criticism for doing his city job on state time with state resources, and for the “appearance of impropriety” in his assistance to a friend who ended up getting money from a city contractor.
• In Huber Heights, one member of the council thinks it’s perfectly fine to run for the city council despite working for a contractor in Iraq and being unable to do city business.
• In Riverside, council members are at each others’ throats, with such charges as “you’re acting like a high school punk.” A couple of years ago, one council member pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct stemming from an argument with another.
• In Carlisle, headlines are about sexually explicit images on a city-owned computer — whoever may have put them there — and about road rage. Some want to recall the mayor. The police chief has been put on administrative leave.
• In Moraine, a series of pointless recall elections had the government in turmoil for years, until recently.
From this list, one might gather that local government, at least at the suburban level, is in some sort of systemic trouble, that the right people just aren’t seeking elective office. Not really true. Every election brings good people who are willing to volunteer their time to do thankless jobs in many places around the Dayton region.
But in communities where most people are struggling just to hold their own economic lives together, often there’s no oversupply of such people.
So problems are destined to arise. (And, it must be said, every time a problem arises, that doesn’t mean the elected official in the news has necessarily done something wrong. Sometimes, the full story looks different from what the early headlines suggest.)
If people are upset enough about these kinds of embarrassments, one possible approach is a move toward regional government. That wouldn’t assure competence, integrity and good judgment, of course. But it could reduce the number of low-profile, low-turnout elections in which overburdened voters are expected to pass judgment.
In truth, the Dayton area has shown no taste for a hard-core version of regional government. But opportunities exist to, at least, consolidate some operations under offices that are well equipped to handle them.
Meanwhile, people who are not satisfied with the kinds of people who are offering their services might consider offering themselves. If you’ve sometimes thought about doing that, but you’ve wondered how your qualifications might compare with other candidates, the best approach is not to assume anything. One can get in the fray and see how things turn out.
Permalink | Comments (25) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Martin Gottlieb, Suburban Communities
TweetGuest column: Manufacturing could boost Ohio once again
This commentary is written by Bruce Katz, vice president and director of the metropolitan policy program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and Lavea Brachman, co-director of the Greater Ohio Policy Center in Columbus.
It can be hard to find good news in Ohio. Foreclosure filings are at record levels — again. Income tax receipts plummeted 35.6 percent from April 2008 to April 2009, and the downward trend continues in 2010.
Unemployment remains high: Dayton’s metro jobless rate reached 11.8 percent in December 2009.
But the current devastation is only half the story.
Ohio is in a paradoxical moment: The present is painful, but the future could be promising. And, in another paradox, its manufacturing heritage is part of the reason why.
The pre-recession economy was driven by consumption, energy profligacy and financial bubbles.
The next American economy must be very different: export-oriented, low carbon and innovation-fueled.
According to the World Bank, exports make up only 11 percent of U.S. GDP, compared to 40 percent in Europe, 40 percent in China, and 36 percent in Canada. Only 4 percent of U.S. companies export.
Ohio can lead the U.S. back into the export game, because the state still manufactures what the rest of the world wants, including medical instruments, electrical machinery and aircraft parts.
Brazil and China, two rapidly growing economies, are Ohio’s third- and fourth-largest trading partners. Dayton and six other large Ohio metros exported about $3.6 billion worth of goods and services to Brazil, India and China in 2007 alone.
Dayton is in the country’s top 20 large metros in terms of export intensity (the percentage of metropolitan region output that is exported overseas). The region is in the top third of large metros, and first in Ohio, in terms of service export intensity (education, consulting, health care). Dayton’s service export growth outpaces the national average.
Low carbon is the second hallmark of the next U.S. economy, and it could spark a production revolution in Ohio and other manufacturing states.
The transition to a low-carbon economy is fundamentally about markets and products. We will need new energy supplies — like biomass — and new machines — like turbines and solar panels.
Also, we will need new kinds of batteries, new kinds of cars and energy-efficient appliances, and smart meters. All of these products could be designed, developed and built in Ohio.
The state ranks seventh in the nation for total green technology patents for 1998-2007, with strengths in batteries, hybrid systems and fuel cells.
According to a recent report by the Pew Center on the States, Ohio’s number of clean energy jobs grew by more than 7 percent between 1998 and 2007, even as the overall number of jobs in the state fell 2 percent.
Creating the products and services demanded across the globe, and those that fit with a low-carbon world, will take quantum leaps in innovation.
Ohio attracted $46 million in venture capital investments in clean technology in 2008, more than triple the 2007 amount.
The state is in the top 10 nationally in science and engineering doctorates awarded; in academic research and development spending; and in small business innovation research awards, according to recent National Science Foundation data.
It is true that Ohio’s job losses, and Dayton’s in particular, in manufacturing have been staggering, especially with the recent closing of the Delphi and GM plants.
But manufacturing doesn’t have to be a millstone — it can be a steppingstone toward the next economy. Important innovations emerge from the factory floor. Innovating more means producing more, and that production can take place in Ohio.
This mindset should drive Ohioans’ policy decisions over the next year. It is not easy to raise spending on innovation, or to vote for an additional $700 million for the Third Frontier program, while pressing school districts and local governments to find more savings. But those hard choices will position Ohio for a stronger future.
The “Restoring Prosperity” report that the Brookings Institution and the Greater Ohio Policy Center just released recommends 39 policies — from rebuilding physical assets to collaborating at the regional level, that can help Ohio be strong in an export-oriented, low-carbon and innovation-fueled world.
The Downtown Dayton Partnership, CityWide Development Corporation, the Dayton Development Coalition and others have already started implementing some of these ideas, working to reuse vacant properties and build on neighborhoods and assets like the University of Dayton — all to become a stronger, greener city and region.
Yet, just as important as the policies is the underlying message: even as this economy falters, Ohio could benefit from the next one that’s emerging. Your strengths are just as real and relevant as the current crisis.
Bruce Katz is vice president and director of the metropolitan policy program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Lavea Brachman is co-director of the Greater Ohio Policy Center in Columbus. They co-authored “Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy,” which was released Feb. 22.
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TweetKevin Riley: We should keep an eye on Cuyahoga County changes
Cuyahoga County has an ambitious plan to change its government. We in the Dayton region ought to be watching and learning from it.
The most populous county in the state was rocked by scandal in its county government in the summer of 2008 when about 200 FBI agents raided the county offices in Cleveland and the homes of some county officials. That scandal is still unfolding with news of arrests, indictments and plea bargains. It has exposed a pattern of patronage and blatant corruption.
The scandal gave citizens the incentive to overwhelmingly pass a measure to radically change Cuyahoga County’s government structure — the same county structure virtually all Ohio counties have had since before the Civil War.
County government in Ohio has been structured in this way:
• A three-member county commission, elected by all voters in the county.
• More than a half-dozen elected county officeholders, including sheriff, coroner, auditor, recorder, clerk of courts, engineer, prosecutor and treasurer. These offices are also elected countywide.
Even a well-informed citizen would look at all of those offices and struggle to explain what the officials do. But, more important, county government in Ohio creates a confusing system of accountability. No one person or entity is responsible for the county’s overall spending, budgeting and planning. In Montgomery County, the total budget is about $900 million.
Things went wildly wrong in Cuyahoga County, where patronage jobs and other financial shenanigans showed just how dysfunctional the arrangement can become.
Montgomery and other local counties (except maybe Butler) don’t have the same traditions of misbehavior that Cuyahoga County has (though the county is embarrassed by the pending Southern Christian Leadership Conference scandal and its poor monitoring of public money it awarded that group).
In fact, folks from around Ohio generally view Montgomery County as well run and progressive — one of the best in what really is an antiquated system.
(In Montgomery County, we did in the recent past have a county recorder who just refused to come to work, but that’s a story for another time.)
In November, Cuyahoga County overwhelmingly passed Issue 6, which created this structure of government for the county:
• An 11-member council, with each officeholder elected by a district.
• A county executive elected by all voters in the county.
The plan abolishes the other county offices — except prosecutor — and puts financial and other functions into the hands of the county executive.
The goal of those who promoted the measure is to make county government work better and more efficiently. The ambition is also to help the county do a better job with economic development.
According to Ned Hill, Dean of the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, the success of this change depends on how well county services are preserved, while lowering costs and creating “transparency.”
So why should we care about all of this?
• Our state clearly has a problem with its governments at the local level. Last week the Brookings Institution issued a report that argues that the state’s local government structure is bloated and costly.
• Area counties are under financial strain. In Montgomery County, a recent task force urged leaders to look at changing how the county is structured, given that the county isn’t growing and the current arrangement is becoming unaffordable.
• Also, there has been occasional talk of the possibility of merging the City of Dayton with Montgomery County — a consolidation modeled after such a change in Louisville, Ky.
Before we consider something like that, we ought to ask: “What problem are we trying to solve?”
Cuyahoga County’s plan is no panacea. We’ll have to decide what kind of change we want and are willing to make happen.
While changing county government might be a start, in Cuyahoga County, there will still be major issues between the City of Cleveland and the dozens of other cities in the county. Counties also have constrained roles under Ohio’s constitution.
And in our region, we have a struggle and rivalries between counties, as Greene County demonstrated by its recent decision to sharply cut its support of the region’s Dayton Development Coalition.
Reforming a county government won’t change that kind of problem.
But we should keep an eye on Cuyahoga County. At some point, our region is likely to have to make changes. And we shouldn’t wait for a crisis.
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TweetEditorial: Councilman can’t serve Huber in Iraq
For someone who isn’t actually here, Huber Heights City Councilman Brian Walton just won’t go away.
Mr. Walton, who works for a private company that supports the Air Force, is interested in working overseas. He also wants to serve on city council in Huber Heights. The two are mutually exclusive. He is in denial when he insists he can do both.
Mr. Walton was first appointed to council in January of 2009, filling a seat vacated when Seth Morgan was elected to the state legislature. A short time later, Mr. Walton made it known that his job would require him to relocate to Iraq for a year, beginning in June 2009. When he left, council stripped him of his seat under a rule that kicks in after three unexcused absences. Mr. Walton is still in Iraq, currently just more than halfway through his assignment that ends this June.
But there’s a twist that has brought the issue around again. In November, Mr. Walton ran for, and was actually elected to, the seat he was removed from, and he was sworn in as a city councilman while still in Iraq last month. He was elected easily over the man council appointed to replace him — attorney Tyler Starline — with 75 percent of the vote. (Mr. Starline was handicapped because he was a write-in candidate.)
On Monday, city council voted again to remove Mr. Walton for unexcused absences. Mr. Walton argues that he is being treated unfairly because, while not in uniform, he is serving his country in a civilian support role at a time of war. If he were a uniformed soldier, he says, nobody would push for his removal. His election strengthens his argument, since presumably such a large percentage of voters who picked him included a fair number who knew the situation and voted for him anyway.
But there is a nagging disconnect in Mr. Walton’s actions. The decision to seek public office necessarily should require a serious self-appraisal and blunt questions to oneself about what is most important in life.
Every potential candidate for public office wrestles with these issues. Choosing to run for a city council seat, by its nature, means also choosing to spend less time and effort elsewhere, whether it be with family, on hobbies or at a job.
It’s honorable that Mr. Walton genuinely wants to serve on council, just as his commitment to his work in support of the U.S. military is to be commended. But he simply cannot be in two places at once.
The people Mr. Walton was elected to represent deserve just that — representation. If he cannot provide that service at this time, he shouldn’t be on council.
A day presumably will come when Mr. Walton’s professional commitments will no longer require long stretches outside the country, Mr. Walton can always re-engage at that time. In the meantime, he should let others better positioned to help manage the city fill the post.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Miami Valley Politics, Scott Elliott, Suburban Communities
TweetMartin Gottlieb: Tony Hall knows what Bayh is talking about
Last week, Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana moderate, announced he is leaving the Senate, saying he doesn’t love Congress. It’s hyper-partisan and all that.
Even before that happened, I had been wondering how Tony Hall is seeing Congress these days. He represented Dayton in Congress through the 1980s and 1990s, mainly.
He was a mainstream Democrat who was with the Republican mainstream on abortion. And he just wasn’t into the gotcha game of Congress, whereby whichever party is in power uses that power to investigate, embarrass and hassle the other.
His deep religion led him into congressional prayer groups that created strong bonds with certain Republicans, including very conservative ones.
He’s still in Washington, working on hunger and peace issues. He’s director of the Alliance to End Hunger, an umbrella group and political arm for major humanitarian organizations. He deals with Congress a lot.
His own years in Congress were not seen then as a great flowering of bipartisanship and amity. The old bipartisanship on foreign policy had long since disappeared. Newt Gingrich was on the rise, consciously fostering sharper differences between the parties.
The parties were constantly going after — and nailing — leaders like Democratic Speaker Jim Wright and Republican Gingrich on ethics charges. People were lamenting the new hostility.
And yet, Hall says that now when he goes up to “the Hill,” his old colleagues tell him it’s far worse.
“I hear it every day: It’s not the same Congress as when you were here,” he says they say.
The legislators tell him that they don’t know each other socially, and their families don’t know each other, don’t have dinner together as they used to. Everything is business. Everything is combat. Everything is party. And everything is done on the run. Hall believes part of the problem is that, more than ever, the members live away from Washington, meaning they live out of a suitcase, flying in on Monday night and home on Thursday.
Hall also laments that candidates are always chasing campaign contributions. “It seems to be all about money anymore,” he said.
But he particularly laments the lack of contact outside of business.
“You know, when you pray with somebody,” he said, “It’s hard to hate him.”
Over the weekend, Bayh had a piece in The New York Times that makes a lot of Hall’s points and more. He highlighted “gerrymandering of districts, endless filibusters … and a caucus system that promotes party unity at the expense of bipartisan consensus.”
By the latter, he means that all the members of each party meet regularly to plan strategy as a party. One can just picture the troops going out with a hand clasp and a war cry.
Whenever I write about the rigidification of Congress into close-minded blocs, I worry about being seen as one of those old guys who pines for a glorious day that never really existed. Well, what never existed — speaking as somebody who spent almost five years in Washington long ago — was a Congress that was universally beloved and embraced for its high-mindedness.
But Congress really hasn’t always been like this.
Bayh tells of a time when Senate Republican leader Everett Dirksen put his arm around the shoulder of Sen. Birch Bayh (Evan’s father), a liberal Democrat who was facing re-election, and asked what he could do to help. Totally unthinkable now.
Why? Bayh doesn’t confront one big reason: Such coziness always drove certain Republicans nuts. The party had, after all, spent decades in the congressional minority. These Republicans asked: How are we supposed to draw the sharp distinction necessary to convince people of a need for change if we’re so lovey-dovey with the other side?
So began a relentless effort to draw sharper distinctions between the parties. It had such leaders as William F. Buckley Jr., Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh.
Once upon a time, there were fair numbers of liberal Republicans and lots of conservative Democrats. That had some downsides, even from the public’s point of view. It resulted in complaints and jokes about whether there was really any difference between the parties.
But it helped keep things civil.
Today we have a system of cleanly different parties. But we haven’t learned how to work it.
The task is sharply complicated by screaming voices on television, radio and elsewhere that consciously foment polarization and make millions off it.
Meanwhile, the overall electorate pursues centrism not by supporting centrists, but by swinging back and forth between the centrist-free parties.
Permalink | Comments (26) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Locals in national affairs, Martin Gottlieb, Miami Valley Politics, National Politics
TweetEditorial: Twin Valley sale won’t fill void
A for-profit company is buying the old Twin Valley state mental hospital on Dayton’s Wayne Avenue, but it’s too soon to know whether that’s a good or a bad thing for people who need mental health care and can’t get it in the Dayton community.
The state closed Twin Valley in June 2008 as part of a cost-saving move.
Now individuals who need inpatient mental health care are being sent to a state facility in Cincinnati; admitted to local hospitals, which aren’t designed to keep psychiatric patients beyond a few days; or they’re given their meds and sent on their way.
It’s not a good situation, and the problem is compounded by the fact that psychiatrists at the county mental health agency and psychiatrists at local hospitals are at each others’ throats.
Psychiatrists at ADAMHS — the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services agency — get to decide who’s admitted to the Cincinnati state hospital. In the case of people without insurance, this means they decide who will get treatment at state expense.
When that agency won’t OK treatment at a state facility, a local hospital often is in the position of keeping a patient who may not belong in a general hospital. More than likely, the hospital also will take a financial hit for providing the treatment.
A local study is being done by area hospitals that shows a small number of chronically mentally ill patients — many of whom also have drug or alcohol addictions — are responsible for big bills that the hospitals turn around and submit to Montgomery County for repayment under the Human Services Levy.
Amamata LLC is the newly created company that is buying the old Twin Valley from the state for $1.7 million. The state is eager to trumpet the sale because there is still much bitterness aimed at the Strickland administration for closing Twin Valley in the first place.
But the sale itself is not what matters. What counts are the services that will be offered and for whom. If the facility only takes those who have insurance, that’ll leave area hospitals caring for those patients who can’t pay and possibly losing those who can pay.
Some psychiatrists say that what’s needed locally are psychiatric services for children, developmentally disabled individuals, older adults and those who are both mentally ill and addicted to drugs or alcohol. These are subspecialities that general psychiatrists may not be expert enough at dealing with.
There’s some understandable local skepticism about a for-profit business model being viable. A for-profit operation was slated to go into Elizabeth Place, but that effort fizzled.
Generally speaking, it’s hard to turn a profit at psychiatric facilities because Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements are low, and reimbursements by traditional insurers aren’t exactly lucrative either. That’s why states so often end up running psych facilities or why they’re non-profit.
Dr. John A. Johnson, who is president of Amamata, told reporters he wants to offer speciality services, the sort Dayton needs. He has big plans, including putting $6 million into the aged Twin Valley facility, and he imagines hiring 150 people.
There is no doubt that there are gaps in the local psychiatric offerings. Whether Amamata can help fill them remains to be seen. What’s certain is that Twin Valley’s absence is still being felt.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Health Care, Local Business, Ohio government, Social Services
TweetEditorial: Early college cut now has Ohio out of step
The Obama administration wants to pilot a promising high school reform effort. Too bad Ohio is moving in the wrong direction, having junked funding for an effective program that is perfectly in step with the administration’s goals.
The federal pilot in eight states (Ohio is not one of them, but Kentucky is) would create an avenue for high-achieving high school students to skip two years of high school and jump straight to attending a community college.
Specifically, if students can perform well on challenging coursework early in high school and pass college-level exams at the end of their sophomore year, they can move ahead with a college education.
It just so happens that Ohio has pioneered an excellent test program build on this concept. Nine “early college” high schools in Ohio are part of a national experiment with the same regimen.
Dayton has one of the best performing, the Dayton Early College Academy. That charter school began as a joint venture of the University of Dayton and Dayton Public Schools. It now relies heavily on UD’s financial support.
In part, that’s because of a huge mistake by the state legislature in the midst of last year’s budget wheeling-and-dealing. In the effort to fill a massive shortfall, money for the early college was among a host of programs that lawmakers axed, costing DECA about a quarter of its funding.
Ohio is now out of step with the national trend.
Under President George W. Bush, almost all school reform efforts were focused on kindergarten to eighth grade. The faulty logic of No Child Left Behind was that better prepared younger children would naturally make high schools more rigorous. Belated efforts by President Bush to get serious about changing high schools never really got off the ground.
President Obama’s hope is that high schools will respond to the opportunity for their students to move quickly ahead by ratcheting up their own expectations and offerings. The plan also maps the way for kids to see the practical value of their school work: put in the effort, and you can get out of school early.
Critics have argued for more than a decade that U.S. high schools need a makeover. In too many schools, the work is just not challenging enough. Sometimes the bar is set so low that high-performers complete the toughest courses early and end up filling their senior years with frivolous electives and study halls.
Bit by bit, efforts have been made to give kids who want to move on a way out. Allowing high school students to earn university credit by taking college courses has been a huge success.
There’s also been an explosion of college-level courses at quality high schools through programs like Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate. Early-college high schools are another successful move in this direction. The Obama plan takes some of the lessons of schools like DECA and tries to apply them more widely.
Before it’s too late, the state should reverse course. Ohio should not only keep its fledgling early-college program, it should expand it.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott
TweetPitts too pessimistic?
Leonard Pitts has a column about a subject that has been grabbing me lately, too: the apparently increasing impermeability of the human brain against unwanted facts.
He might be a bit too pessimistic. He says, “To listen to talk radio, to watch TV pundits, to read a newspaper’s online message board, is to realize that increasingly, we are a people … divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth.”
Thing is, though,
when you’re talking about talk radio and online message boards, you’re probably talking about the same people, a small group in percentage terms.
On the other hand, especially when he adds the talking heads on TV, he’s talking about a group that has significance beyond numbers. These are the people who actually engaging in political discourse — or a lot of them.
To hold that most Americans aren’t so closed minded doesn’t bring much comfort if those people are sitting out political debate, perhaps in part because they’re repelled by it.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Blog entry only, Columns, Martin Gottlieb
TweetEditorial: Soaring sedans worth a look for Dayton, after the jokes
Want to start a conversation around the coffee pot? Say “flying car.”
The phrase grabs the imagination. A story in this newspaper on Wednesday, Feb. 17, about a company that’s talking about coming to Dayton to build flying cars stirred all manner of local imaginations.
People were picturing having to deal in the sky with the kinds of drivers they face on Earth. And they were talking about an old TV show, “The Jetsons.”
Coffee pot conversations suggest that some people think a “flying car” is the dumbest, most impractical thing they’ve ever heard of. Others are surprised we don’t have them already.
Once beyond the giggling stage, the local imagination must turn to this point:
Dayton really does seem to be the right place for this idea to — no, not that cliche — get off the ground. No city in the world can claim a stronger connection to the histories of flight and cars, both.
How that figures into the plans of Terrafugia, Inc. is not clear. That Massachusetts company has developed a prototype. The thing really does drive on roads and fly. The two-seater fits on roads because the wings fold up. It can fill up at a gas station and use that gas to fly.
The company says it can have flying cars ready for the market next year at $200,000 each, and that 70 people have already put down $10,000 each, meaning a $14 million market is already there.
Nevertheless, the company has had difficulty raising the money necessary to proceed until it starts selling products.
Even in flying circles, there’s a lot of skepticism about the idea proving practical any time soon. People note that the flying-car idea isn’t new, that a car flew as long ago as 1937. But achieving reliability, affordability, safety and ease of use are really hard. Skeptics note that a mere fender-bender could make a car unflyable. So driving on the road would foster too much stress.
Also, said one writer, “An air car has to make too many weight concessions to be really flyable, so chances are it won’t fly anywhere near as well as an ordinary… aircraft.” Terrafugia says it isn’t getting enough financial support at home, but has potential Ohio investors. Who the investors are is unknown, as is why they care where the company operates.
Although Dayton was singled out in the original news reports about the company’s plans, Terrafugia has reportedly said it is considering other places, too.
The first report about its plans came when an executive called a Boston Globe reporter to say the company is moving, though it would prefer not to. Some in Dayton think he might be just trying to drum up money at home.
How Massachusetts will respond is another unknown. At this stage, Terrafugia only employs about 10 people. How many it might want to hire is another unknown. Economic development officials in Dayton weren’t aware of the company’s plans when the story broke. That’s no reflection on them. Every indication is that Terrafugia’s obsession at this point is with capital.
Since the news broke, the Dayton Development Coalition has been in touch with the company.
Comparisons with the Wright brothers arise. They weren’t the first to get into the air, but they were the ones whose work led to airplanes becoming practical.
And they were able to proceed largely on their own — up to a certain point. Eventually war and the military became crucial in the development of flight. Well, there’s a military angle here, too: The Pentagon would love to have a vehicle that proceeds on the ground until, say, it comes to a body of water, and then can hop over it.
The military connection is yet another reason Dayton would make sense as a development site, given Wright-Patterson Air Force Base’s leading role in driving air-related technology.
Unfortunately, the military seems most interested in a car-plane that could take off and land vertically. The Terrafugia prototype requires a runway. But those practical considerations are still a way off.
The best guess is that a use will be found in our time for vehicles that fly and drive, just as vehicles that float and drive have long been around. But whether “our time” means 2011 or 2018 or 2032 is a question of great importance to investors.
Dayton and Ohio shouldn’t be obsessing over the obstacles now. Just having the effort here would be a good thing. Flying cars are already an object of public fascination. The closer they come to reality, the more attention there will be. That’s the kind of attention Dayton is looking for.
And, who knows? This, too, might be history.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Auto industry, Editorials, Martin Gottlieb, Transportation
TweetEditorial: Arts groups have a point, not being ‘divas’
The Dayton arts community, now looking elsewhere for help with its consolidation plan after being rejected by the Dayton Foundation, is not having a “diva” moment.
Arts organizations, under increasingly intense financial pressure from the recession, have been nudged by community leaders to find ways to cut their costs. The Dayton Foundation offered one way: apply to its program that offers funding for such efforts.
The foundation has a track record of success shepherding organizations with similar missions together into merged operations. Dayton History, which brought together local historic preservation efforts, is a recent example. But Dayton’s diverse arts offerings have needs that don’t fit the usual plan.
Earlier this month, the foundation took a pass on the arts organizations’ proposal to move toward consolidation because the plan didn’t fit the parameters the foundation program typically requires.
If the arts leaders were flatly rejecting the idea of cooperation, that would be worrisome. But they’re saying they’re committed to collaboration, even if they believe it won’t work under the foundation’s approach.
Instead, they raised money to continue the effort with a different consultant who has experience working with arts organizations. The new approach is worth a try, but the commitment to change must include deep and wide-ranging coordination, not just a few shared functions. This is a scary concept for some groups, but it can be done without harming their individual missions.
Besides survival in hard times, this is about serving the community more effectively. Dayton has especially vibrant arts offerings, built on a first-class tradition. Midsized cities that can boast an opera, a ballet, an art institute and a world-class theater venue are few. Dayton has all that and more. Those assets are a selling point for the community and must be protected.
Every group has its own interests to consider. Even organizations within the same genre — dance or theater or music — can have very different missions and focuses.
Take the Victoria Theatre Association and the Human Race Theatre Company. They have long collaborated on many levels. But a few years ago Human Race took something of a step back.
The Victoria is highly focused on Broadway shows that will attract large audiences (such as “Wicked,” now playing before packed houses at the Schuster Center). The Human Race’s mission is to bring edgier, but important, plays to town, even if they might not be blockbusters. (An example was “Angels in America,” a critically acclaimed play about AIDS, presented in 1998.)
The different goals made working together difficult on production and budgets, so Human Race took production mostly back under its umbrella. Human Race Executive Director Kevin Moore says other collaborations continue. Those sorts of lessons have to be learned along the way.
Mike Parks, executive director of the Dayton Foundation, points to the merger of a local program called “Crayons to Classrooms,” which provides donated school supplies to needy kids, and Goodwill Industries.
“Their missions are very different,” he says, “but … both need retail, inventory, warehousing, delivery trucks and forklifts.”
The Crayons program has a tiny budget and relies on Goodwill for many of its services, but maintains its own board and mission.
This is what Mr. Parks calls “mission convergence.” At some level, it has to happen. The best opportunities might not be obvious at first. And the seemingly natural matches might not work out. But a focus on big-picture goals can benefit everyone who cares about the arts.
Permalink | Comments (30) | Post your comment | Categories: Dayton's Arts Community, Economy, Scott Elliott
TweetEllen Belcher: Air Camp is good for kids, Dayton
I get irked when people say that Dayton needs to get over the Wright brothers. Do these people believe that Springfield should forget Lincoln? That Memphis should bury Elvis?
You might have missed a brief story in this week’s newspaper about Air Camp USA that’s coming to the University of Dayton this summer, the week after the July air show.
Or maybe it didn’t stick with you because you don’t have middle-school kids, the target group.
But here’s another example of how the Wright brothers’ history is being leveraged, how two long-dead guys’ legacy can live on and work for Dayton’s benefit.
A person, after all, could start a summer camp focused on flying anywhere, but it feels especially right to do so in Dayton — the home of the Wright brothers and the place where they learned to steer, which, incidentally, was no tiny scientific breakthrough.
This is, I admit, a plug for the people beta testing the idea of hooking kids on science and math by teaching them about flying. But I mean to make a bigger point, too: Dayton’s history gives it special claims to things that few other communities can make. We need to seize them.
You don’t have to be overly sentimental, for instance, to imagine that Dayton’s past matters in discussions about Wright-Patterson Air Force Base’s future growth and importance in the AF’s orbit. Imagine someone proposing that Wright-Patt should be closed or downsized to the point of irrelevance.
Presumably more than a few generals and die-hard pilots would push that person out of the nearest plane.
Certainly, as NASA is deciding where to retire its shuttles, it can’t just skip over the Air Force museum’s bid as if Dayton were Anytown, USA.
Air Camp is borrowing some ideas from Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., though, of course, that effort is richer and bigger, having been around since 1982.
Different people are in the local effort for different reasons, but the common interest is attracting young people to careers in aviation, engineering, science and math.
If, in so doing, local universities identify promising students, so be it; if the teachers who are involved come away with engaging lesson plans and new skills, so be it; if Dayton ends up attracting some families to town to drop off their child, that’s nice, too.
The Air Camp idea has been floating around for several years, but this year it’s finally and really going to happen, ideally with a class of 40 kids, each of whom will have to go through an application process.
This will not be band camp or a week of field trips. Rather, over the six days, students will fly unmanned aerial vehicles over UD; they will create a flight pattern for a humanitarian relief project; they’ll each co-pilot a plane; and they’ll have access to flight simulators.
The catch is that the gig costs $900 — too much for many, many families.
Scholarships will be available, but it’s not clear yet how many there will be.
Air Camp’s organizers — UD’s Tom Lasley; Vincent J. Russo, formerly executive director of the base’s Aeronautical Systems Center; Ret. Lt. Gen. Richard V. Reynolds; and Dan Sadlier, formerly of Fifth Third Bank — think they’ll have more financial aid next year, after they’ve delivered on an engaging, demanding educational immersion.
The effort is another spoke in the Dayton region’s push to be a certified and innovative hub for ensuring that there is a next generation of engineers, scientists, aviators, astronauts and mathematicians.
Beyond this, there is the STEM school at Wright State — STEM being short for science, technology, engineering and math — and the STEM center, which has teachers, academics and scientists producing new curriculum for teachers.
Aviation and Dayton’s history are central in both of these initiatives.
You never know what experience will capture a child’s imagination, what’s going to hook him or her — young. But if somebody let you pilot a plane or sit in an Air Force simulator, you probably wouldn’t forget that moment.
Where else but Dayton should that sort of education be a common — affordable — thing?
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Education, Ellen Belcher, Local History, Wright Patterson Air Force Base
TweetEditorial: Flawed stimulus doing good around the state
Calculating how many jobs the federal stimulus has stimulated is kind of like asking how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Does anyone really have confidence that a precise number can be had, given our inability to know what would have happened to the economy in the absence of the stimulus?
President Barack Obama and a bunch of his people spent this week talking up the stimulus on the occasion of its first anniversary. They were on defense, with Republicans and, indeed, many Americans, wondering if the $787 billion effort has worked.
After all, unemployment nationally is nearly 10 percent; it’s a full point higher in Ohio.
The president reminds people that things really could have been worse, that the economy was crumbling fast when he proposed the stimulus.
What’s incontrovertible is that if the stimulus funds hadn’t been there, state and local governments and schools would be on a different footing today.
Even for people who love to hate government, it’s worth considering how ugly the situation would be here, but for the feds’ money.
The Columbus Dispatch reported this week that Ohio is set to receive $10 billion under the stimulus program. The largest amounts are for Medicaid assistance ($2.8 billion) and to stabilize the state budget ($1 billion).
Schools are the biggest direct and indirect beneficiaries of the money. The state has only so much discretion — because of federal law — as to how it can reduce spending on medical care for the poor. But on schools, it has legal leeway to cut. (On a political level, of course, the pressure to support them is great.)
Let there be no doubt that schools would have been hurting badly if the feds had not come along.
Some of the stimulus money will take a while to arrive in Ohio or will be spent over years. But the state’s current two-year $50 billion budget is patched together with close to $6 billion in stimulus money.
If the state had 10 percent less money today— given that a sweeping 10-percent across-the-board cut simply can’t be imposed on every agency (think prisons) — Ohio would be in a stunningly bad way. So would its citizens.
Remember in 2005 when state lawmakers were considering cutting the local government fund? That would have meant that cities, counties and townships would have taken cuts of up to 20 percent. Remember the uproar then about many police and firefighters, among others, could lose their jobs?
Remember the protests when library funding was on the chopping block?
Those reductions absolutely pale in comparison to what would have happened if Ohio hadn’t been bailed out by Washington.
Meanwhile, plenty of the federal money has gone to the private sector, including in Ohio, in the form of government contracts, construction projects, and loan programs, and even indirectly through the unemployment checks that have kept out-of-work people buying groceries and making their house payments.
Another hefty junk of the stimulus money — $120 billion — went directly to individuals and small businesses in the form of tax cuts, which were also designed to keep money flowing and people spending.
Has every stimulus dollar been spent wisely? Of course not. Was there ever a way to ensure that? No.
Is it possible that without massive intervention the businesses and families that are still trying to recover from a near economic meltdown would be the worse off today? Entirely.
Permalink | Comments (42) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Editorials, Ellen Belcher
TweetMartin Gottlieb: Seth Morgan has good reason to seize the moment
If I were Seth Morgan, I’d go for it, too.
The extremely junior Republican state rep from Huber Heights is taking flak for his decision to run for state auditor against the choice of the state party organization.
Kent Moore, chairman of the party in Belmont County (on the West Virginia border) said last week, “I’ll be happy to explain to Seth that the reason he will not receive the support of this chairman at this time is not because I believe in ‘waiting your turn,’ as Seth assumes to be the case, but because he needs to learn to respect the GOP and its elected leaders, before he can expect to earn our support.”
Given the standing of “elected leaders” with the public, opposition like that could put Morgan over the top.
True, Republican primary voters are often presented as hierarchical and conservative people who believe in respect for leaders and believe in waiting one’s turn in line. Big-resume figures such as John McCain, Bob Dole and the first George Bush routinely were nominated for president over more conservative candidates with lesser resumes.
But Morgan’s opponent in the primary is not exactly John McCain, and, anyway… Well, let’s start at the beginning.
With the alacrity of a speed-skater getting off the starting line in a sprint, Morgan made clear his interest in being auditor at the virtual instant that John Kasich picked Auditor Mary Taylor as his lieutenant governor running mate.
At the time, he was the only Republican in the field. But two Republicans were running for attorney general. One was former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, a second cousin of state party Chairman Kevin DeWine. And one was David Yost, prosecutor in Delaware County.
A lot of Republicans saw nothing good in a challenge to Mike DeWine, who, on paper, seems an extraordinarily strong candidate in the general election. So Kevin DeWine and Yost worked something out. Yost switched to the auditor race and got the party organization’s endorsement.
Morgan didn’t get to call dibs on auditor, just by being first. That’s fair enough. But look at his political assets:
• He is the only CPA in the race. Incumbent Mary Taylor is a CPA, the first to be auditor. And she was the only statewide Republican to win in 2006 (outside of judicial races). The party got mileage out of her professional credentials, or tried to.
• Yost got diverted off a track that made a certain sense to non-politicians: from prosecutor to attorney general, which is what he really wanted. And that happened as a result of one of those “back room deals” that so often make for campaign fodder for the other side.
The deal was defensible. Kevin DeWine was trying to spread out his candidates in a way that makes sense for the party. It’s what chairmen are expected to do. But, still, there it is.
When Yost was up against Mike De- Wine, he was favored by some flaming conservatives. But now he could become a symbol to the right-wingers of the facilition not only of the more moderate Mike DeWine, but of some sort of DeWine machine.
• Morgan is a natural favorite of the Tea Party movement, the hyper-energized tug on the Republicans to the hard right. He was the only recognizable political name to speak at the local Tea Party’s first public event at Courthouse Square last year. His current spokesman organized the event.
I don’t know much about Yost. If, as seems unlikely, anybody cares, this certainly isn’t an endorsement of Morgan. We’re just handicapping the political situation here. If you’re Morgan, you see a chance worth taking.
He’s willing to give up his House seat. He’s always gone out of his way to say that, however ambitious he might look — and he certainly does, approaching 32 — if he loses an election he’s still an accountant and family man, and that’s fine.
My own sense is that if he has a long-term future in politics, it may be in the conservative movement, as opposed to elective office. You know: at one of those organizations that pushes causes. Those are his people.
They do like to hire former politicians, especially ones who have risen fairly high first.
Permalink | Comments (25) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Elections, Martin Gottlieb, Miami Valley Politics, Ohio politics
TweetGuest column: Dysfunctional health care system carries huge cost
This commentary was written by Lawrence E. Mieczkowski, an internist who specializes in cardiovascular disease prevention. From 1994-96, he was director of clinical information services for Kettering Medical Center.
I recently saw Jim, who’s 56. His cholesterol was over 300 and his blood fat triglycerides were 2,300, despite being on two cholesterol medicines. With these values, his blood is as thick as a strawberry milkshake.
The nurse had alerted me that I had seen Jim some years ago and he had not returned. “Dr. Mitch didn’t do anything for me,” the two-pack-a-day smoker said.
As I looked through his charts, I noted that he drank six to eight beers nightly. Probably more, now that he is not working, I said to myself.
Jim’s heart attack risk is close to 75 percent over the next four to five years.
Elaine is another patient. She’s 70, and I have treated her for nearly a decade. She has chronic kidney disease, but has been able to stay off dialysis. She has been getting frailer every year, but last spring she was doing fairly well, so I told her not to come back until October.
At that visit, her weight was down nearly 20 pounds, and she was more hunched over in her wheelchair. She now has a plastic tube in her stomach to receive food and medicines.
She had been hospitalized at Kettering Medical Center some months previously for dehydration. A cardiovascular surgeon was consulted and, because she had some dizziness, he recommended risky carotid artery surgery to clean out the cholesterol build-up in her arteries.
Complications occurred, and Elaine spent almost a month in a nursing home. I was dumbfounded.
Elaine’s blockages had remained stable for more than five years. No one from the hospital team had called me to discuss her care. Elaine and her husband had just assumed that I knew surgery was being recommended.
I have another patient with recurrent pancreatic cancer. He has not been told that, based on research, the best option at this stage is declining more treatment.
Another course of chemotherapy will cost nearly $7,000 per month, while he has no real chance of surviving beyond six months.
Meanwhile, there’s a local doctor we’ll call Dr. Ed. He has a large primary-care practice and has decided to re-establish his business as a boutique medical practice. His patients must pay an annual fee to receive care.
I see many of his patients for their cholesterol and diabetes management. Many can’t afford my colleague’s costly retainer fee. Hundreds of individuals, many of them elderly, now have had to find another primary-care physician.
The questions common to all of these situations is: What’s the right thing to do and how do we determine it? If we are ever to truly reform health care, how do put in place measures to ensure we do the right thing?
My first patient, of course, bears significant responsibility for his health problems. But, amazingly, there are few incentives — positive or negative — that can be used to change his behavior. There are thousands of Jims just in the Dayton area.
Elaine’s case is very straightforward. The hospitalist movement is fully ingrained in our community, with hospital-based physicians taking care of patients who are admitted. But, in many cities, those physicians coordinate care and consult with their patients’ other doctors.
In my experience, this rarely happens in Dayton, leading to duplication of services and experiences like Elaine’s. A telephone call could have averted costly, unnecessary vascular surgery and a lengthy hospital and nursing home stay.
Should oncologists alone make recommendations to patients about costly end-of-life medical treatment options or should there be a family meeting involving the patient’s primary care physician, as well as a spiritual counselor and a hospice expert?
When Dr. Ed established his boutique practice and made the decision to close his doors to Medicare patients, I doubt he had paid back the federal and state grants that had underwritten his medical education, to the tune of perhaps $200,000 to $300,000.
Every medical school and hospital or university-based residency program receives money to subsidize a physician’s education. Yes, we pay considerable tuition, but no physician pays the full price. Does that matter when doctors set their prices or refuse to see certain patients?
I don’t have the answers to these problems, but not searching for solutions is costing us all dearly. Deciding not to decide how to change our health care system is expensive — even hurtful.
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TweetEditorial: SCLC scandal forces accounting here
If Rev. Raleigh Trammell’s critics at the national Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta hadn’t gone to authorities about his alleged financial improprieties, the civil rights organizations he oversees here would still be receiving — and mishandling — public money.
That’s in large part because Rev. Trammell has a long history of successfully intimidating people.
In fact, the trouble he faces today does not arise because anyone in the Dayton community has stood up to him or called him to account (though an employee has filed a sexual harassment complaint against him).
The list of individuals and institutions — including this newspaper — that could have been, and should have been, scrutinizing him more intensely is long.
Now that the FBI has descended upon and seized records from Rev. Trammell’s home, his daughter’s home and the local SCLC offices, governments and non-profits that have dealt with the Dayton SCLC and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, of which Rev. Trammell is executive director, are cutting off money.
They are embarrassed and belatedly asking for what should have been routine accountings.
It’s not a proud or confidence-inducing moment.
On Sunday, Feb. 14, staff writers Lynn Hulsey and Tom Beyerlein reported that Dayton’s SCLC and the ministerial alliance received about $3.7 million in public money since 1999; more than $900,000 of that was handed out in just 2008 and 2009.
Among the problems:
— Last year the SCLC received $34,500 from the federal government to operate a battered women’s shelter. For at least the last five months of the year, there was no shelter.
— The ministerial alliance has also received federal money for a food pantry that isn’t operating.
— Montgomery County awarded the SCLC and IMA $184,260 for assistance to needy families during 2008 and 2009, but there’s little documentation that meaningful services were provided.
— Part of Montgomery County’s award to the SCLC and IMA included a $40,000 grant to provide home-based meals to nine people. Spending on that program, too, lacked good record keeping.
— The state gave money to the SCLC in 2009 for a battered teen program, but held back on $53,000 for 2010 after administrators became concerned about the group’s books. Moreover, the SCLC got the 2009 and 2010 funding even though a local committee that vets grant requests had not ranked its proposal high.
— After the county health department gave a $50,000-plus grant for an HIV/AIDS outreach program in 2008 to another entity, the SCLC sued — unsuccessfully, though it’s appealing.
Perhaps the saddest thing about such a long list is that it undermines public confidence in the many social service programs that are consistently run responsibly.
Montgomery County Administrator Deborah Feldman has acknowledged that Rev. Trammell threatened to withhold support for the human services levy renewal in 2003 unless the county funded organizations he supported. That explains a lot about Rev. Trammell’s relationships.
The prospect of being called racist or being boycotted at the urging of Rev. Trammell and others he brought along was enough to make people in and out of government blink, turn a blind eye or avoid confronting Rev. Trammell.
The SCLC name and the black ministers’ group were seen as carrying weight with a lot of people.
Meanwhile, back in Atlanta, the allegations — no criminal charges have been filed — are that Rev. Trammell and the SCLC’s national treasurer haven’t accounted for over a half-million dollars.
There, as well, Rev. Trammell’s behavior has been threatening. He became national chairman in 2004 after an ugly power struggle in the organization, most pointedly with the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who helped form the SCLC with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In that fight, Rev. Trammell engaged in profane name-calling, even committing one vicious rant to writing.
Rev. Shuttlesworth is a civil-rights icon who invited Rev. King to Birmingham to protest and bring attention to the violent and even murderous treatment of blacks there. When Rev. Trammell was put in charge, Rev. Shuttlesworth told the SCLC’s directors that he hoped historians didn’t write that they ushered in “Trammell’s Folly” or “Trammell’s Tragedy.”
The national SCLC’s bitter, embarrassing internal strife and its struggle to make itself relevant to a new generation of blacks long pre-dates Rev. Trammell’s leadership. But there’s no question that the latest controversy is rocking a storied institution that, if it dies, deserves a more dignified death than one precipitated by scandal.
However the controversy is resolved at the national level, it is, at the same time, having the consequence of forcing overdue soul-searching and accounting in the Dayton community.
Permalink | Comments (30) | Post your comment | Categories: Civil Rights, Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Locals in national affairs
TweetEditorial: Anti-bonus rage matures in Brown proposal
A year ago, news came of incredible million-dollar bonuses being paid to AIG executives in the wake of that company’s collapse and the federal bailout. Within a few days, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a 90-percent tax on the bonuses.
Then second thoughts set in about such a high rate and about using the tax code punitively and “surgically” against a specific group after these people had already received money legally; and about doing all this because of an enraged public. Congress was getting scary.
The bill disappeared in the Senate as public anger about the AIG headlines died down — a little.
Now Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has a calmer proposal that goes in the same direction.
It would impose a 50-percent tax on bonuses over $25,000 paid in 2010 to executives at businesses that received bailout money.
And he would direct the money to a specific cause. Typically — but not always — tax money goes into the general fund.
Sen. Brown says that meetings around Ohio have convinced him that there’s a specific problem hindering economic recovery: the inability of small businesses to get loans. He says he hears the complaint wherever he goes.
President Barack Obama and many others note the same problem. The president has proposed using repaid bailout money to create a small-business lending fund. Republicans have criticized that, saying the money should be put against the national debt.
The Brown proposal would actually increase the debt in the short run, a little. Under current law, the controversial bonuses would be taxed generally at 35 percent, and the money would go into the general fund. Under the Brown proposal, the entire 50 percent would go toward small business loans.
Sen. Brown’s office estimates the bill might raise $8 billion to $10 billion, enough to allow for thousands of loans. Nonpartisan government experts haven’t made an estimate yet.
The tax would be a one-time-only source, which is not the most useful kind of tax. But it’s for a one-time-only purpose: to get small businesses over the current bump. Similar efforts are coming out of other congressional offices in both houses. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., has proposed a tax on bonuses over $400,000, with the money going to the general fund.
The good thing about the Brown approach is that it clearly takes the tax out of the realm of punishment or “class warfare” and makes it more about meeting a pressing national need of this particular year.
There are thorns on Brown’s plan. Congress cannot get in the habit of looking around for unpopular rich people to tax and justifying that with a popular spending program.
And yet today’s circumstances are exceptional. Executives who are now getting bonuses from hugely profitable banks that are repaying their bailout money can thank taxpayers. Meanwhile, unemployment is expected to remain very high for years in the wake of the largely self-induced financial-sector meltdown. And the newly profitable banks are being very slow to do business with small businesses.
The Brown proposal lifts anti-bonus anger out of mindlessness and puts it to good use. Still, the right way to proceed would be to levy the tax and, in other legislation, find a way to address the special small-business problem, one that is recognized by people in both parties.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Editorials, Locals in national affairs, Martin Gottlieb
TweetScott Elliott: Super Nanny has it right that good discpline requires self control
“SuperNanny” is one of my guilty pleasures. Watching it just makes me feel better about my own parenting, as the poor overmatched moms and dads on the show get pushed around by their bratty kids. At least I’m better than them, I tell myself.
But as Jo Frost, the kindly and smart British nanny who stars in the show, goes about teaching effective strategies for dealing with unruly kids (beware of the “naughty chair”), there is one place she will never go. Nobody is going to bend a kid over their knee for a spanking on her watch.
Like Frost, I am a spanking non-believer. So I pursue more effective strategies. Or so I’ve told myself.
I cheered last year when Ohio finally outlawed spanking as a punishment at schools. We were the 30th state to institute such a ban, even though only six districts still allowed it. In fact, the whole state had only 110 school spanking cases in 2007-08.
The shift away from spanking has been pretty dramatic. In 1984, 68,000 Ohio children were paddled at school and only five states banned the practice.
The change is also cultural. While spanking is still strongly approved of in opinion surveys, fewer parents actually employ it.
Yet, differences in attitudes about spanking are oddly connected to political ideology. Surveys show conservative and deeply religious parents are more inclined to spank than those who are less religious and more liberal. This inflames the debate.
So you might expect that when a study by a researcher at Michigan’s Calvin College, a religiously affiliated school in a politically conservative part of that state, found last month that spanking might have positive effects on kids, the forces on the left and the right loaded up and fired away.
For the study, 2,600 people were asked about how they were disciplined. The findings concluded that those who were spanked, but not physically abused, from ages 2 to 6 performed better in school and volunteered more as teenagers.
Stories soon popped up hailing spanking’s effectiveness in the conservative press and critics on the left were quick to pounce, insisting that spanking is harmful and attacking the study as small and unpublished.
While it’s true that the bulk of the research from the last decade advised parents to move away from spanking, there are some interesting nuances.
One of the difficulties for researchers is distinguishing acceptable discipline from abuse. Generally, a hit that leaves a mark is considered crossing the line; one reason so many people advise against spanking is because it is easy for angry parents to get carried away. Spanking is usually treated as a last resort, which can mean the parent has run out of patience. That’s when the situation can get dangerous — when the parent loses control.
But this effect isn’t limited to spanking. In October, The New York Times magazine wrote about a new phenomenon in child discipline — abusive yelling — which it termed “the new spanking.” The story described (mostly liberal) parents who were philosophically opposed to spanking but found themselves, instead, regularly screaming at their kids. Experts in the story worried that intense shouting could have similarly harmful effects reminiscent of physical abuse.
Interestingly, there is some research to support the Michigan study’s suggestion that spanking might be effective for young children, but only in limited cases and with a very high bar for parental control. Some studies found if parents remain calm, spanked as a last resort and only in a fast, non-abusive way (such as with two quick taps on the rear) the technique was effective in getting children to comply.
Notice this high bar is required both for spanking and raising your voice, and that things can go bad when the parent loses control either way.
That’s another thing I like about “SuperNanny.” Frost’s techniques are methodical and focus on getting the parents to disengage their own emotions as they correct their children. I like to think I follow her example, but I’m sure glad there aren’t any cameras around when a naughty kid needs a “time out.”
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TweetEditorial: Human touch can help build voter trust
Ohio’s tradition of local control of schools has deep roots. Community-school connections, to some degree, define many places.
When it comes to funding, schools depend on local voters more than do most other public services. It’s never easy to ask people for money, so schools have long relied on networks of key supporters to rally behind their levies.
But, over time, campaigns have become less personal and frequently more built around money. In 2010, school levy campaigns can’t follow that playbook. They need to find new ways to reconnect.
“The economy is different and the climate is different for the voters,” says Gary Davenport, a Northmont school board member active in past and present levy campaigns. “With that, the question becomes, is it time to change strategy?”
School districts are increasingly answering “yes,” and some of the new tactics have advantages for promoting public understanding of the issues. It’s a good trend.
Consider Miamisburg schools. For a levy campaign, a district like Miamisburg would usually need to build a significant war chest for a broad effort relying heavily on advertising and other paid media to get the message out.
School districts can’t not do those things. But money-intensive efforts don’t have to be the primary focus.
For its campaign in support of two levies on a Feb. 2 special election ballot, the Miamisburg school district made an unconventional decision that past levy leaders might have considered suicidal: the campaign didn’t buy a single yard sign.
Instead, Superintendent Dallas Jackson, board members and key levy supporters went to an unprecedented 80 citizen meetings — business organizations, governmental boards, service clubs, neighborhood groups and more.
“The goal was to do lots of talking to individuals, so people could get direct answers and accurate answers,” Mr. Jackson says.
Miamisburg’s levies earned a split decision from voters — a “substitute” 7.06-mill levy (a new kind of renewal levy) passed handily, while an additional 6.58-mill levy narrowly lost by 188 votes. Mr. Jackson says Miamisburg will try again for the additional levy in May and will primarily use the same approach.
Northmont’s campaign for a 9-mill replacement levy in May is just getting under way. Board member Davenport says preliminary plans call for a steering team designed to foster smaller groups to make wide-reaching community contacts.
“There’s been a lot of talk about copying what Barack Obama did in his campaign by reaching out to a lot of people,” he said.
Kettering Superintendent Jim Schoenlein, whose district also will ask for money on the May ballot, says the district learned from a 2007 renewal defeat that community connections cannot be neglected.
“People want you to work hard,” he says. “They want you to be out there selling it to them.”
Meanwhile, levy committees find fundraising tougher these days. In the suburbs, there isn’t usually a wealthy business community to foot the bill. In Kettering, for instance, levy campaigns traditionally rely heavily on contributions from district employees for levy campaign money.
Though cheaper, the people-to-people approach requires more work. Mr. Schoenlein says he’s already started his own one-man campaign.
“Just this morning I sat down with some folks — who said they live in Kettering — at Panera and had a conversation. The other day, I caught up with some people leaving the fitness center at Trent Arena. Folks are very receptive to that.”
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott
TweetGuest column: Long-term plan is reducing homelessness in Dayton
This commentary was provided by Walt Hibner, executive director of the Home Builders Association of Dayton; and Charles Meadows, retired City of Dayton employee. They are co-chairs of the Homeless Solutions Policy Board.
Contrary to a headline in the Dayton Daily News (“Neighbors’ complaints derail homeless plan,” Jan. 26), the community’s Homeless Solutions Plan has not been derailed.
In fact, it is making substantial progress.
In June 2006, Dayton, Montgomery County and the United Way of the Greater Dayton Area adopted an ambitious Homeless Solutions Community 10-Year Plan. It is a blueprint for ending chronic homelessness and reducing overall homelessness.
In the three years since then, the number of people who are chronically homeless has declined substantially; a major new homelessness prevention program has begun; the gateway shelter system has been transformed with the recent opening of the Gettysburg Gateway for Men; and significant progress has been made in connecting the homeless system to other resources and systems in the community.
In addition, hundreds of units of permanent supportive housing have been created in seven communities across the county.
Throughout the process of developing and implementing the Homeless Solutions Plan, there has been an understanding of the need to balance the concerns residents have about new projects to serve the homeless coming into their community and the needs of homeless citizens for housing opportunities all over the county.
Stable permanent housing is the solution for homelessness. The gateway shelters and other programs in the homeless system provide case management and programming to families and single adults to help them develop a plan to move to housing, either in the private market or in one of the transitional or permanent housing programs in the homeless system.
For people with significant barriers to housing — such as an addiction or mental illness — research has shown that providing a rental subsidy and case management is an effective solution.
The people referenced in the DDN article had been living in tents in Veterans Park with little hope of finding housing or employment. One man had been homeless for five years. Last summer, an initiative was developed to house homeless families and individuals who were either in shelters or living in Veterans Park.
A landlord in Grafton Hill had several units available in one building. With rental assistance and case management, the homeless individuals each signed a lease and moved into their new homes in July.
Since that time, many of the tenants have found jobs, qualified for benefits and been connected to health services. All but one of the tenants have since moved into permanent housing.
Our community has committed to reduce homelessness. To do that, we must provide permanent, affordable housing options and necessary supportive services for our most vulnerable citizens.
The Homeless Solutions Plan is on track to prevent and end homelessness.
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TweetObama-Brown exchange
President Barack Obama’s high-profile meeting with House Republicans wasn’t the only recent event like that. He had one with Senate Democrats. Here’s one exhange:
SENATOR REID: The (next) question is going to come from the only person that’s a member of the United States Senate who has a spouse that’s won a Pulitzer Prize - Sherrod Brown from Ohio. (Laughter.)
SENATOR BROWN: Thank you for joining us. Thank you for your visit to Lorain County, Ohio, a week and a half ago; first presidential visit to that county of 300,000 since Harry Truman in 1948.
THE PRESIDENT: It was a great visit. We had a great time.
SENATOR BROWN: It was terrific. Ten miles from there, Oberlin College, one of the great private institutions of higher learning in this country - at Oberlin College, there was a building built there seven or eight years ago, fully powered by solar panels. It’s the only - it’s the largest building on any college campus in America like that. Those solar panels were bought in Germany and Japan, not surprisingly - Germany, a country that has both an energy policy and a manufacturing policy. Seventy-five miles west of there is Toledo, Ohio, where you’ve been several times, and Toledo has more solar energy manufacturing - solar manufacturing jobs than any city in America.
It begs the question of two things in terms of manufacturing policy and energy policy. We have all kinds of things in so many of our states - manufacturing wind turbine components and solar panel components - but we’re the only major industrial country in the world without a manufacturing policy. And every rich country in the world has one. We don’t.
I know what you’re doing with Ron Bloom in the White House and other things, but how do we get there? How do we - when we read these articles in the paper that China is just exploding in terms of wind turbine manufacturing and solar panel manufacturing - how do we rebuild our manufacturing sector with a manufacturing policy, combined with an energy policy that gets us there?
THE PRESIDENT: I hope people had a chance to read that article that was in The New York Times I guess last Sunday, talking about how China is not waiting, it is moving. And already the anticipation is, is that they will lap us when it comes to clean energy.
Now, they’re not a democracy and so they don’t debate. (Laughter.) And there are no filibuster rules. And so obviously over the long term a system that allows for robust debate and exchange of ideas is going to produce a better result. I believe that. But we have to understand that when it comes to some key issues like energy, we are at risk of falling behind.
We’ve already fallen behind, but it’s not irrevocable because we still have the best research, we still have potentially the best technology, we’ve got the best universities, the best scientists, and as I said, we’ve got the most productive workers in the world. But we’ve got to bring all those things together into a coherent whole.
Now, I think there are a couple of elements to this. One, in terms of manufacturing generally - you just mentioned Ron Bloom, who we put in charge of a manufacturing task force, is just issuing now a report to me about the direction we need to go to have some coordination when it comes to manufacturing.
Now, this is not some big bureaucratic top-down industrial policy; it is figuring out how do we coordinate businesses, universities, government, to start looking at where are our strategic opportunities, and then making those investments, filling holes that exist so that we can be competitive with what China is doing or what Germany is doing or what Spain is doing.
And my hope is, is that during the course of this year we’re going to be able to work with all 50 senators, because all of you have a stake in this, to just see where are our manufacturing opportunities and where can we fill - plug some holes in order to make sure that we’re competitive internationally.
Specifically on clean energy, we know that’s an opportunity. I continue to believe, and I’m not alone in this, that the country that figures out most rapidly new forms of energy and can commercialize new ideas is going to lead the 21st century economy. I think that is our growth model. (Applause.)
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Blog entry only, Energy, Locals in national affairs, National Politics, National government
TweetEditorial: Ohio needs new disclosure law on election money
Corporations cannot spend money directly on state elections, under Ohio law. Nevertheless, a bill may soon be pending in the legislature that regulates how they do that. Moreover, the bill is a good idea.
Long story.
The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the practice of not allowing direct corporate spending on elections. In future federal elections (that is, for Congress and the presidency), corporations — and unions — may spend as much as they want, so long as they don’t contribute directly to candidates.
The decision does not strike down an Ohio law — applying to state and local offices and issues — that is much like the stricken federal law.
But a good bet is that if the Ohio law is challenged in court, it will fall, because the high court was interpreting the U.S. Constitution.
State Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, is a candidate for secretary of state, the office that administers campaign finance laws. He wants to require that any corporation or union funding, say, an ad disclose its identity clearly in the ad. And he wants quick filing of an expenditure report, perhaps even before the expenditure. (Some say one problem with Ohio disclosure laws about contributions to candidates is that the disclosures are not immediate.)
Similar proposals — relating to federal elections — are pending in Congress. Some would go further than the Husted plan, requiring the CEO (or, presumably, union leader) to personally appear in the ad. Some would require that stockholders be notified ahead of time.
Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has advocated banning corporate election spending if a majority of a company’s directors are foreigners, or if the U.S. operations fall under the direction of a foreign entity. (Foreign entities are already banned from such spending.)
One theory of campaign finance regulation holds that anything should be allowed so long as it is disclosed. That is, let anybody — company, union, person, whatever — give any amount of money to any candidate or cause, but require the donations be reported to the government and be public.
That way, the theory goes, any voter who is offended by any connection between, say, a candidate and an interest group can vote accordingly.
As a result of bipartisan agreement, the nation and state do have some disclosure rules.
Skeptics point out that so much money is contributed to politicians even now — despite disclosure rules — that voters become cynical. They despair of figuring out which candidates are most beholden to special interests.
Whatever the effectiveness of disclosure, sometimes it is the only tool at hand. In the wake of the court decision, new attention to disclosure is clearly needed.
Nobody knows how much impact the Supreme Court decision will have. Sen. Husted (an experienced fundraiser) and Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern (likewise) both say that corporations have always been able to find a way to get their money into politics if they are so motivated. The court decision allows them to be involved more directly in specific elections, as opposed, say, to funneling money to committees they don’t completely control.
Whatever one’s expectations, disclosure is desirable. It will cause executives to think harder before jumping into issues that might divide their stockholders or customers. And the public simply has a right to know — whether it has a taste to know or not — where political money is coming from.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Martin Gottlieb, Ohio government, Ohio politics
TweetUSA Today seems to like “Dayton Patented”
Check this out.
Last week USA Today did a story on cities’ branding campaigns. The piece began with “Dayton Patented. Originals Wanted.” If you don’t know the genesis of the slogan, stay with the story. Cleveland also rated a mention.
If you believe in this sort of thing — not everyone does — Dayton came out looking pretty good; certainly better than if the writer had highlighted the Dayton Development Coalition’s boring, generic “Get Midwest” initiative.
Hopped Up Harry had this to say in the reader comments:
“I have to go to Dayton for business once in a while, and I had no idea so much came out of that small city.
“The Air Force Museum near Wright Patt is better than the Smithsonian if you are into that kind of stuff.
“Maybe it was because I did not expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised wih the restaurants, etc.”
Permalink | Comments (45) | Post your comment | Categories: Blog entry only, City of Dayton, Ellen Belcher
TweetEditorial: Two-track Manhattan Project plan makes sense
Local history activists have agreed to house a display about Dayton’s role in the Manhattan Project at Carillon Historical Park, along with other local World War II history. This is a good step forward.
It beats depending on the National Park Service — which has been asked to play a role. And it serves Daytonians, by consolidating more local history in one place, by telling a story that should be told, by preserving what can be and needs to be preserved.
But, as preservationists understand, this decision doesn’t address a bigger issue that has been percolating for a few years:
What can be done to preserve the two remaining local Manhattan Project sites? And can Dayton’s role in that historic event be turned into a community asset?
After a three-year study, the National Park Service has decided it doesn’t want a multi-state, multi-site national park devoted to the Manhattan Project. That was the legendary, highly secretive program that first harnessed nuclear energy — for bombs to end World War II.
Park officials want a site only at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
That’s understandable. Los Alamos is where J. Robert Oppenheimer — later, incredibly, to lose his security clearance — harnessed the brain power of a group of people who constituted the scientific equivalent of the American Founding Fathers for sheer talent. And who were engaged in an equally monumental, historic task.
The thing is, though, that story is well-known. People who don’t know it have access to it, via books, documentaries and the movies.
But the Manhattan Project actually took place in many other places, places whose stories are far less known: Oak Ridge, Tenn., Hanford, Wash., Chicago, New York and, in fact, Dayton. By getting involved beyond Los Alamos, the park service could add something to the nation’s knowledge of its history.
But the park service has decided it would be too expensive, mainly because of security issues at Hanford and Oak Ridge, which are still engaged in defense work.
The park service report — still preliminary, pending public input from around the country — reads as though the service wants to avoid expenses that it really thinks should be borne by the Department of Energy, which runs Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Hanford.
The expense issue doesn’t really arise in Dayton. Here it’s a matter of reclaiming and reusing two buildings.
One is not far from the Wright-Dunbar attractions and is owned by the Dayton public schools. The other is on East Third Street downtown, and is privately owned.
Tony Sculimbrene, executive director of the Dayton Aviation Heritage Alliance, still hopes the park service might be told by Congress to enlarge its vision. Much could depend on how people at Hanford and Oak Ridge respond to the feasibility study.
He hopes park officials will at least designate the two buildings as part of a park. That wouldn’t automatically make them sites inviting visitors. It wouldn’t cost the park service serious money. But it would be a force against the buildings’ destruction.
Mr. Sculimbrene notes the existence of a certain skepticism, even in local circles, about the feasibility of attracting many tourists to possible displays at the two sites. But he says the situation reminds him of 1981, when people were skeptical about turning the site of the old Wright brothers bicycle store into an attraction.
However the long-term future might be imagined, the short-term course the community is on makes sense: Do what can be done locally to preserve and communicate a fascinating and important part of local and national history; play out the bid for federal participation, rather than accept a first-draft rejection; and keep all options open.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Local History, Martin Gottlieb
TweetEditorial: NCR’s loss still can be Dayton’s gain
When NCR announced last June that it was moving its headquarters to suburban Atlanta, a lot of Daytonians wanted to believe that CEO Bill Nuti was underestimating — to his and his company’s peril — how wedded NCR employees are to Dayton.
Even if Dayton didn’t grow on him, a large number of his employees really do like living here, we said to ourselves.
Eight months later, that attachment can actually be documented.
A few weeks after NCR dropped its bomb, the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce and Sinclair Community College, among others, hooked up to create a Web site called ChooseDayton.com.
It was designed to link NCR people who hoped to stay in the community with employers who are hiring. (It has since been opened to non-NCR employees, too.)
At the time NCR said it was leaving, it had 1,200 or so employees here. Since August, 636 NCR employees have registered at ChooseDayton.com.
It’s possible that every last one of those individuals wasn’t offered a position in Duluth, Ga., and needs a job. (NCR won’t say how many employees were asked to move.)
But that’s highly unlikely. It’s a good bet that some simply chose not to leave and that others are keeping their options open as the company is slowly shutting its doors here.
Even if NCR’s move is about downsizing, as well as putting down new roots, no one can look at the numbers and not think about NCR’s potential — and real — loss of talent.
Meanwhile, NCR has allowed Montgomery County Job and Family Services to survey employees about their plans and interests. (The county needs certain information to document to the federal government how many people might need services once they’re out of work; the county could be eligible for re-training grants and whatnot.)
That data, too, is revealing. More than three-quarters of the 426 people who responded — a full third of the headquarters count — have worked for NCR for more than 10 years; an amazing 51 percent have been with the company more than 20 years.
Almost 60 percent were earning between $50,000 and $100,000 annually; not quite a quarter earned $100,000 or more.
More than half — 52 percent — live in a two-income household, and slightly more than 60 percent wanted information about financial aid for education and training.
Connect all this data and you have a picture of a sizeable number of the people at NCR:
They are well-educated (42 percent had bachelor’s degrees; 19 percent master’s degrees or higher). They are loyal employees, with local ties, not necessarily in a position to easily pick up and go.
These are individuals whom local employers should be hoping to snap up.
Too bad it’s impossible to say how many people have actually been helped by ChooseDayton.com. The chamber hasn’t been tracking how many connections have been fostered, though it says it will keep those records going forward.
Some people think the Web site can become an important space to promote Dayton and for employers looking for talent in the area. They say it shouldn’t go away when NCR finally does.
For it to be helpful to the community, the tech people have more work to do. If, for example, you don’t know about the site and its name, it’s hard to find. Moreover, there’s no mention of the word “jobs” on the home page, which is pretty important to the people the site is trying to attract.
So far, NCR has told the state that 644 of its people have either been laid off, accepted a position in Georgia, retired or declined a spot at the new headquarters.
That means there could be up to 600 more individuals who possibly can be persuaded to keep Dayton their home — if they can just land a job.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: City of Dayton, Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Local Business
TweetEditorial: Shuttle should land at Air Force museum
We’re coming down to the wire on learning whether the Air Force museum is going to get one of the soon-to-be-retired three space shuttles.
Actually, there are only two.
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum — understandably — will get the Discovery, which will be the last to fly. That leaves just Endeavour and Atlantis, with Atlantis possibly available as early as July 2011.
The good new news is that the price, so to speak, for this privilege has come down.
Originally, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said that museums would have to pay $42 million to take possession of a shuttle. That was the estimated cost for decommissioning and moving one of the birds to a new home.
Not surprisingly, that figure stunned a lot of places.
Nonetheless, it didn’t stop possibly as many as 20 museums and educational institutions, including the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, from making the case why they would be a fitting resting place.
In truth, though, finding that sort of money would be difficult for any of the bidders. The latest word is that it will cost just $28.8 million to take ownership.
Local people following this competition, however, think NASA may whittle the possible receivers to only federal sites. That not only narrows the list of interested parties, but it makes it easier to justify using federal money — not necessarily from NASA’s budget specifically— to get the space vehicles ready for public display.
NASA had a nice, but probably not very realistic, hope that it could totally pass off the expense of retiring this fleet at no cost to it or to the feds generally.
Even though there’s intense demand for the orbiters, museums and their local communities are also being told that they also have to have show places where they can protect and display these pieces of history.
How much can reasonably be asked of people who are getting something of tremendous value, but, at the same time, are preserving a piece of history for the country?
The Air Force Museum Foundation is raising money to expand the museum’s current one million square feet of exhibit space. It imagines a shuttle in a fourth building that would expand the museum’s footprint by 20 percent.
That would be terrific for the Dayton region, but also for the Air Force. It has years of work, and generations of people, invested in the shuttle and space programs.
Given where that service is headed — with space-based weaponry, space-based reconaisance and satellite protection — the museum would be missing so much to not have this part of its mission and its history reflected in its treasury of flying machines.
Led by U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, Ohio’s congressional delegation is behind the push for bringing a shuttle to Ohio. That advocacy campaign needs to be aggressive and persistent.
If Ohio — the home of astronauts — and the Air Force — the contributor of so much for the shuttle’s development — lose out on this, the politicians will have a lot of explaining to do.
On the merits, the Air Force museum can’t be passed over.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Wright Patterson Air Force Base
TweetEditorial: New late fee for licenses is over the top
When it comes to late fees, Ohio’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles is acting like a credit card company.
A steep new $20 fee for those who register their vehicles or renew their driver’s licenses more than seven days after they expire has hit 300,000 drivers since it went into effect on Oct. 1. Many Ohioans are feeling hoodwinked.
The General Assembly went overboard in instituting such a high fee. A responsible fix is needed.
The fee was first recommended by a task force that was asked to find new ways to fund the Ohio State Patrol, which had relied primarily on gas tax revenue. The task force suggested several new auto-related fees and fee hikes.
The initial proposal was for a $10 late fee for licenses, but lawmakers — facing a huge budget hole — doubled it to $20 with the goal of raising $19 million a year for the state patrol.
They also exceeded the task force recommendations for fees on other services, but the license and registration late fees have surprised drivers the most. It has raised $6.4 million — more than was even anticipated.
The bureau notes that it now sends 90-day warnings to drivers that their license renewal is almost due, and it permits them to complete the process easily over the Internet, and it allows a whole week grace period before instituting the fee.
Remember, also, that a driver who is even one day past expiration can be cited by police and stuck with a much higher fine — for not having a valid license.
Still, $20 is close to the $25.75 cost of just renewing a driver’s license. Also, there is a bit of a quirk that makes the new rule feel even more unfair.
Many Ohioans mistakenly believe their licenses do not expire until the end of their birthday month. This has never been true. The law requires renewal no later than your birth date.
Still, many Ohioans routinely complete their renewals at the end of the month and are used to doing so without penalty.
A fee that nearly doubles the cost of renewal is too much.
Republicans are rallying around a bill that would eliminate the fee with no plan for replacing the lost revenue. That’s a bad idea. Democrats are working on their own bill that also would eliminate the fee but replace the lost dollars with new revenue, though they haven’t specified yet where the money will come from.
Following the task force recommendation of a $10 late fee would make sense. And whatever the final plan, it must include a way to replace the lost revenue, so the state patrol budget isn’t upended.
Permalink | Comments (53) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Law Enforcement and Public Safety, Ohio government, Scott Elliott
TweetGuest column: Greene County benefits from efforts of coalition
This commentary was written by Greene County Commissioner Rick Perales.
I agree with the spirit of the Jan. 29 editorial, “Greene County snubs its best advocate.”
Greene County needs to continue to support the regional collaboration that the Dayton Development Coalition brings to the Miami Valley. This is precisely why I voted against the Greene County 2010 budget.
My fellow commissioners and I agree on the vast majority of issues and budget expenditures. However, we respectfully disagree regarding financial support for the development coalition.
The future of the region requires that we all pull together. I believe Greene County needs to collaborate and participate in a regional economic development strategy to create jobs and recruit businesses. It is our best opportunity for sustained prosperity.
As the leader of that regional strategy, the development coalition is the right place for such an investment.
True, Greene County faces a difficult budget year, and we have painful choices to make. However, we cannot get ourselves out of this downturn by cutting investment. Greene County needs to maintain critical spending for sustained, future job growth or we will be faced with even more economic uncertainty.
Growing jobs means growing prosperity and is a core function of county government. The development coalition has a demonstrated record of success.
With it taking the lead, our region put its best foot forward, contributing greatly to the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) gains at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which Greene County and the rest of the region are just beginning to realize.
In the next two years, more than 1,000 government jobs will transfer here, with thousands more private-sector jobs expected. But that’s the tip of the iceberg.
With the numerous and diverse missions at WPAFB — research and development, acquisition, intelligence, the Air Force Institute of Technology, international assistance — there is a great opportunity for our region to capture much more of the contract-support funding associated with the base. The development coalition is especially qualified to act as the region’s intermediary, aligning industry, small businesses and academics to support the missions.
Because the base is located primarily in Greene County, it is likely to be a major beneficiary of this economic impact.
Cities and counties invest in the development coalition for many reasons. Some believe in the value of being part of a regional movement. Others do so because they value the opportunity to partner with international initiatives for business recruitment.
For Greene County, the principal benefit is its efforts with WPAFB and the jobs that are created as a result. Supporting the development coalition is an investment and the right thing for Greene County.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment |
TweetMartin Gottlieb: Underage sex slavery is very real in Ohio
“I was walking down the street and this guy … he just picked me up and started beating me … and he told me I was going to be his ho.… He said if I didn’t do what he said, he was going to hurt my little brothers and sisters and my mom. And I didn’t want that to happen. So I did what he said.” — “Katie,” quoted in “Report on Prevalence of Human Trafficking in Ohio.”
That study estimates how many underage girls are forced into prostitution statewide in a year.
Perhaps, however, what’s most interesting from a Dayton perspective is a look at Toledo, where some numbers aren’t estimates.
That similar-size city ranks a shocking fourth in the country in arrests, investigations and rescues involving these girls. It’s behind Miami, Portland and Las Vegas.
Now, those other three are also not the biggest cities in the country. Nevertheless, one is not shocked to find Miami and Las Vegas on the list. But Toledo?
The reason is clear: arrests, investigations and rescues aren’t measures of what’s going on. They are measures of what is discovered. And what is discovered depends, in part, on what is looked for, on just how intensely a community is focused on a problem. Toledo has been one of the national leaders in focusing on human trafficking. As a result, Toledo “has been involved in almost every national investigation into domestic minor sex trafficking” since 2000, says the study.
One such investigation in 2005, Operation Precious Cargo, resulted in guilty pleas or convictions for 18 traffickers, 17 of whom were from Toledo. Sentences were up to 25 years for the guilty pleas; higher for the two who went to trial.
Precious Cargo found 151 “victims of prostitution,” 78 being from Toledo. Of the 151, at least 45 were children, ranging in age down to 12.
According to the study, “at least six other Toledo-based traffickers have been prosecuted.”
The study comes from a group put together by Attorney General Richard Cordray last year in response to rising alarms about human trafficking, in large measure spurred by Toledo and by federal probes. Cordray appointed people from law enforcement, academia and organizations that come into contact with the victims of traffickers.
One of the first orders of business was to get a handle on the size of the problem. That’s not easy, and the reason is not simply that human traffickers don’t register with the state. It’s that traditionally, people in law enforcement and social work have not focused on trafficking as an American problem. To many ears, it sounds like something that happens in a Third World hellhole.
Even when dealing with foreign prostitutes in Ohio, American officials don’t necessarily ask whether they were forced into it.
When confronted by a case like one in Dayton not long ago of a mother prostituting her child to pay her rent, authorities don’t fit it into a category that has statistics connected.
So a task force subcommittee researching trafficking (with Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly as a member) had to make estimates. It knew, for example, that a certain percentage of runaways who are gone from home for a couple of weeks end up in forced prostitution. It went from there.
The group eventually concluded that about a thousand Ohio children a year get trafficked for sex.
Besides those cases, there are immigrants — a slightly smaller number — who are forced into prostitution or other forced labor, not to mention the adult Americans in forced prostitution (not estimated). The study says its estimates are conservative, and that more research is needed (and ongoing).
How does trafficking happen? The report (available online at ohioattorneygeneral.gov/) offers examples like Katie’s. Another:
Julie was 12, daughter of drunken, poverty-stricken, physically abusive father. One day, a car pulled up alongside her. After a long talk, the driver convinced her to get in. Physical force wasn’t a big part of the story, but manipulation was. She ended up offering herself at a truck stop.
Often when governments and newspapers start paying more attention to a subject, it’s because something has changed to make the subject more pertinent. In the case of human trafficking, however, few people are saying that much has changed recently.
It’s just that the phenomenon is real and, until recently, not much understood.
When Toledo is ranking fourth in the country, it’s not a time for Toledo jokes. It’s time to recognize just how unfocused and clueless we have been.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Law Enforcement and Public Safety, Martin Gottlieb, Ohio government, Social Services
TweetVictor Fehrenbach: Ridding military of gays diminishes our security
U.S. Sen. John McCain has always been a hero to me, and I’ve voted for U.S. Rep. John Boehner, the House Minority leader who represents my hometown of Huber Heights in Congress. After 18 years of decorated service, I must ask them: Why do you want me kicked out of the U.S. Air Force?
Last April, I faced a military discharge board — basically, a modern-day witch trial — which recommended that I be honorably discharged under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The board ruled that my “continued presence was detrimental to good order and discipline, morale, and unit cohesion.”
This was not based on any evidence or testimony, but simply on a baseless presumption at the core of this corrupt law — that the mere existence of gay service members is incompatible with effective military operations.
The claim is demonstrably false.
For nine months, I have waited for my discharge to become final, while my career and my life hang in limbo. At the same time, I have hoped and prayed for President Barack Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to end this policy.
Recently it looked as if my prayers might be answered. President Obama proclaimed during his State of the Union address in late January that “this year” he would keep his promise. Just days later, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, testified in a Senate hearing that the policy should end now, because it is “the right thing to do.”
For the first time in history, top military leaders openly supported ending the ban on gays in the military. This was a historic moment. After the hearing, I had never been so proud to wear my uniform. I am proud to serve under the command of Admiral Mullen. Sadly, some of our leaders, including men I admire like Sen. McCain and Rep. Boehner, resorted to tired, baseless arguments in support of this outdated law. They claimed it’s “working” and it’s “successful.” They further claimed that, in the midst of two wars, “now is not the time” to change the policy.
They could not be more wrong and more out of touch.
Before I was “outed” in May of 2008, I served my country with honor and distinction. I was deployed overseas five times and participated in seven major combat operations. I was highly decorated and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
At the same time, I abided by the rules of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, keeping my private life private, even from my family. Nobody knew anything about my personal life or that I was gay.
After I came out publicly last summer, I continued to serve in the Air Force — in the same job, in the same squadron — as an openly gay man with no negative impact whatsoever.
The law should be changed because it is unconstitutional, discriminatory and denies basic rights of privacy, due process and equal protection to those who defend those rights with their lives.
But it also should change because it actually harms good order and discipline, morale and unit cohesion. It also hurts the combat effectiveness of the military.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” unjustly discharges well-trained, highly skilled, motivated, and combat-seasoned veterans. Discharging dedicated people with critical combat skills — 13,500 of them since the law was put in place — has cost billions. Their skills are lost, the money spent training and preparing them is wasted, and the costs are high to train their replacements. In this way, the law makes us less safe.
So I have a few questions for Rep. Boehner and Sen. McCain. How is this law “working” for me? How is this “successful” for our country? Why is this not the right time? When is the right time? Never?
Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach grew up in Huber Heights and is an F-15 fighter pilot with the U.S. Air Force currently stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base near Boise, Idaho.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Civil Rights, Guest Columns
TweetEditorial: Out-of-work Ohioans need Congress to act fast
The way unemployment compensation works, the state pays a laid-off worker’s benefits for 26 weeks from a tax paid by employers. But when unemployment rates are high enough for long enough, the federal government steps in. Congress votes to extend benefits and to fund them.
In this recession, Congress has already provided extensions almost to the point of two years for some people.
That’s as it should be. Not that some people don’t have qualms.
The conservative Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, insists that “by reducing the need to look for new work, extended … benefits cause unemployed workers to take longer to find new work.”
More specifically, extending benefits from 26 to 46 weeks increases the unemployment rate by a fifth of a percentage point.
Each 13-week extension has the effect of increasing the average length of unemployment by two weeks, partly because the extended benefits deter people from moving or switching fields, according to the think tank.
“Roughly one-third of workers receiving (unemployment comp) find work immediately once their benefits expire,” says the Heritage’s James Sherk. And he says that’s true whether the unemployment rate is high or low.
And extended benefits also tend to deter the family’s pursuit of other forms of income, the Heritage says.
And, to top it all off, the economy gets no stimulus to speak of.
Anyone who has been around a while knows that some people on unemployment compensation want to take full advantage of its duration (sometimes to go to school).
Somehow, though, it’s hard to believe that a solution to the worst recession in the lives of most people now alive is to cut off unemployment aid. By some estimates, there are six times more unemployed people than there are jobs.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says unemployment aid is one of the best stimulants for the economy. The purchases that people make with their unemployment checks keep other people working.
Congress now needs to extend unemployment insurance again. Otherwise, about 100,000 unemployed people in Ohio could lose their benefits next month, according to the state.
About half the 400,000 Ohioans on unemployment are on extended benefits and would stand to ultimately be cut off.
Recipients also stand to lose an extra $25 per week that Congress has added to benefits.
The House has passed an extension. The Senate needs to act as quickly as possible, so that people and states can make their plans, and benefits won’t be interrupted.
Ohio has had all it can do to keep its own unemployment compensation system functioning, just paying for the first 26 weeks of aid for all those who have been out of work.
It has been borrowing money from the feds for the last year to do so. So have about half the states, but Ohio was one of the first. It has faced high unemployment rates longer than most places.
Gov. Ted Strickland and lawmakers have shrunk from confronting this problem — and the growing debt to Washington, now pushing $2 billion. Nobody wants to raise business taxes (or cut benefits) during a recession. But something must be done.
First things first, though. Congress has to act.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Martin Gottlieb, National government, Ohio government
TweetGuest column: Ridding military of gays diminishes our security
This commentary was written by Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, an F-15 fighter pilot with the U.S. Air Force who grew up in Huber Heights and is now stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base near Boise, Idaho.
U.S. Sen. John McCain has always been a hero to me, and I’ve voted for U.S. Rep. John Boehner, the House Minority leader who represents my hometown of Huber Heights in Congress. After 18 years of decorated service, I must ask them: Why do you want me kicked out of the U.S. Air Force?
Last April, I faced a military discharge board — basically, a modern-day witch trial — which recommended that I be honorably discharged under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The board ruled that my “continued presence was detrimental to good order and discipline, morale, and unit cohesion.”
This was not based on any evidence or testimony, but simply on a baseless presumption at the core of this corrupt law — that the mere existence of gay service members is incompatible with effective military operations.
The claim is demonstrably false.
For nine months, I have waited for my discharge to become final, while my career and my life hang in limbo. At the same time, I have hoped and prayed for President Barack Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to end this policy.
Recently it looked as if my prayers might be answered. President Obama proclaimed during his State of the Union address in late January that “this year” he would keep his promise. Just days later, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, testified in a Senate hearing that the policy should end now, because it is “the right thing to do.”
For the first time in history, top military leaders openly supported ending the ban on gays in the military. This was a historic moment. After the hearing, I had never been so proud to wear my uniform. I am proud to serve under the command of Admiral Mullen.
Sadly, some of our leaders, including men I admire like Sen. McCain and Rep. Boehner, resorted to tired, baseless arguments in support of this outdated law. They claimed it’s “working” and it’s “successful.” They further claimed that, in the midst of two wars, “now is not the time” to change the policy.
They could not be more wrong and more out of touch.
Before I was “outed” in May of 2008, I served my country with honor and distinction. I was deployed overseas five times and participated in seven major combat operations. I was highly decorated and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
At the same time, I abided by the rules of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, keeping my private life private, even from my family. Nobody knew anything about my personal life or that I was gay.
After I came out publicly last summer, I continued to serve in the Air Force — in the same job, in the same squadron — as an openly gay man with no negative impact whatsoever.
The law should be changed because it is unconstitutional, discriminatory and denies basic rights of privacy, due process and equal protection to those who defend those rights with their lives.
But it also should change because it actually harms good order and discipline, morale and unit cohesion. It also hurts the combat effectiveness of the military.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” unjustly discharges well-trained, highly skilled, motivated, and combat-seasoned veterans. Discharging dedicated people with critical combat skills — 13,500 of them since the law was put in place — has cost billions. Their skills are lost, the money spent training and preparing them is wasted, and the costs are high to train their replacements. In this way, the law makes us less safe.
So I have a few questions for Rep. Boehner and Sen. McCain. How is this law “working” for me? How is this “successful” for our country? Why is this not the right time? When is the right time? Never?
Permalink | Comments (18) | Post your comment | Categories: Civil Rights, Guest Columns, Locals in national affairs, National Politics
TweetEditorial: Expelling gays from the military should stop
The U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, requiring gays to hide their sexual orientation, deserves to be buried in the dustbin of history.
That move, which we’ve been heading toward for a long time, may be hastened now that the military’s top uniformed official — Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff — has called for dropping the policy.
But both Republican opposition to the idea and the snail’s pace of legislative change may still conspire to make converting to a rational policy slower than it should be. In the meantime, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mullen could take a concrete step in the right direction by halting efforts to expel service members being investigated for being gay. The move is required as a matter of fairness because everyone can see what’s around the corner.
It also would benefit the country by keeping earnest, dedicated and highly trained people at their posts.
A perfect illustration of why they must act now is the story of Huber Heights native Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, a decorated fighter pilot with 18 years of service now stationed near Boise, Idaho.
In the frightening days following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Lt. Col. Fehrenbach was handpicked for a special team placed in charge of protecting the air space over Washington, D.C.
Seven times in his career he has been called on to be a part of combat operations overseas.
Lt. Col. Fehrenbach is gay, but followed the policy of telling no one until he was outed. After a military board last year recommended his discharge under “don’t ask, don’t tell,” he went public with his circumstances. For nine months, he has continued to serve his squadron without disruption.
Any day Lt. Col. Fehrenbach could receive notice of his dismissal and be finished as an Air Force officer. Secretary Gates and Adm. Mullen must stop that from happening.
Most of our European allies are ahead of us on military openness, allowing gays to serve without restriction. In fact, U.S. soldiers in Iraq have fought and worked side-by-side with openly gay allied troops for years. The supposed ill effects on morale or unit cohesion were not in evidence.
“The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change but how we best prepare for it,” Gates said at the hearing.
A bill repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” has been offered by Patrick Murphy, a House Democrat from Pennsylvania and Congress’ first Iraq War veteran, who calls the policy a “slap in the face” to the professionalism of U.S. service members.
The military should not lose any more talented men and women. Call it dragging your feet, call it a moratorium, but the military can stop the unfairness.
Permalink | Comments (30) | Post your comment | Categories: Civil Rights, Editorials, Scott Elliott
TweetG. Will gives Ryan more credit than is due
Let’s talk a little about George Will’s column on a Republican’s proposed “Roadmap for America’s Future, ” to use the label of its author, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan.
It’s good that the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee is putting forth something. Credit Ryan with “ideas,” Fine.
Will loves the simplicity of the plan, as opposed to “the Democrats’ impenetrable labyrinth of health care legislation.” Thing is, though, simplicity is easy to achieve when you’re talking about a one-person project. It’s when you have to round up hundreds of congressional votes that things get complicated and ugly. (Meanwhile, some Ryan equivalents on the Democratic side would be happy to put forth a simple health care proposal: extend Medicare to everybody. The difficulty would come with the next political step.)
It must be noticed that the Republicans are eager to make clear that the party as a whole has not signed on to the Ryan plan. “It’s his,” said House party leader John Boehner.
Meanwhile, no non-partisan authority has “scored” the proposal, that is, run the numbers to see what they do to the deficit.
Democrats are having a great time tearing into the plan on all manner of charges, such as “partially privatizing Social Security,” cutting taxes for the rich, raising them on the middle class and letting Medicare die.
Let’s set the merits aside. The important point for the moment is that this is one guy. It’s not an occasion for either crediting “Republicans” with something or tarring them for something.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Blog entry only, Martin Gottlieb, National Politics
TweetEditorial: Bank of America should be thinking settlement
Ohio has a big case pending against Bank of America. Two big state pension plans — for teachers and public employees — are claiming they lost about $85 million after the company bought Merrill Lynch during the financial market’s meltdown in 2008.
The charge is basically that Bank of America hid from its stockholders pertinent facts about Merrill Lynch, facts that sent Bank of America stock tumbling after the purchase. The facts in question were that Merrill Lynch had suffered huge losses and had paid huge executive bonuses.
Last week in New York, Bank of America settled a suit that was basically about the same charges.
That case was brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company agreed to pay $150 million.
So, more than ever, it is good to see Ohio chasing money it thinks it lost unfairly. Also good to see is a resolution in at least one venue.
There are multiple venues. On the same day as the SEC settlement, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a suit against two men who were top Bank of America executives during the purchase.
A few months ago, a judge consolidated cases from Ohio, Texas and Europe and wrapped other claims from all over the country under the court’s authority.
Theoretically, in the consolidated case a court could find against the company for more than $1 billion, making it one of the biggest civil cases ever.
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray was put in charge of the plaintiffs’ side, because Ohio is seeking the most money. He picked Dayton lawyer Dennis Lieberman, formerly chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, as “Ohio counsel” in the case.
At this stage, lawyers are still interviewing witnesses and examining documents. In the spring, a judge is expected to rule on the company’s efforts to get the case dismissed.
Bank of America says it is being pursued for political reasons. Clearly, there’s something to that. The politicians sense a chance to do something the public wants. Ultimately, however, the courts and the laws are there to make sure the politicians don’t get carried away.
Consolidating the cases makes sense, in the name of getting the matter resolved and allowing everybody to move on. No point in airing the same charges over and over.
Meanwhile, having the politicians engaged has an upside: they are eager to get the matter resolved, so as to get some headlines about how much money they have won for their states.
Hopefully, Bank of America is moving toward settlement as a general strategy. That would be in everybody’s interest, as opposed to a case that goes on for years, which is always a real possibility in something this complex.
For companies to be held legally accountable for their behavior is entirely appropriate. Stockholders have certain rights. Those rights should be aggressively defended.
But Bank of America needs to move on. Whether or not it’s “too big to fail” — a phrase that has come to grate on American nerves — it certainly is tied in with the lives of many millions of Americans.
The company, the courts and the governments pursuing it need to bend efforts toward a resolution, as well as justice.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Editorials, Martin Gottlieb, Ohio government
TweetEditorial: Sinclair can be pricier, but still be cheap
If Sinclair Community College were not in a financial bind today, that would be a much bigger problem than even its pressing money concerns.
The fear — panic is too strong a word, but it’s not far off — about the future is attributable to one thing: enrollment, which is exploding.
If students, young and old, weren’t — especially in this economy — flocking to Sinclair, that would be much more unnerving.
That would mean people had given up on bettering themselves or didn’t care to do so; or that they couldn’t afford the school; or that they weren’t satisfied with the courses and training Sinclair offers.
None of those things seems to be in play.
Sinclair’s enrollment has increased by 23.1 percent in the past two years, as measured by full-time equivalent students enrolled in the fall. Its cost of $45 per credit hour (for Montgomery County residents) makes it the lowest-priced community college in the state, a distinction that has value beyond bragging rights.
Sinclair’s price is, far and away, what makes it a place of possibilities for so many.
Sinclair’s board and administrators are tip-toeing around absolute declarations, but some of them, anyway, have concluded that the college must raise tuition over time and back off its commitment to tuition freezes.
At a recent board retreat and at meetings with faculty last week, President Steven Lee Johnson presented facts and figures suggesting Sinclair has no choice but to increase what it charges students.
Yes, the state has been increasing its funding — on account of the uptick in enrollment — but a 5 percent increase in that money in 2009 over 2008, for example, doesn’t cut it when there are 11 percent more students.
Last year the school did get a nice 16 percent bump in property tax revenue on account of its local levy that was passed in 2008. But Sinclair’s entire property tax receipts only represent 20 percent of revenue.
At a meeting with faculty on Thursday. Feb. 4, the comments that had the most heads nodding is that the college is relying too much on part-time instructors and that classes are too large — all a function of money.
One instructor spoke of having 40 students, saying her room was so crowded she couldn’t walk between desks.
Meanwhile, Sinclair, more than some other colleges, is feeling the effect of the message that everyone needs some post-high school education. Not everyone who realizes that reality is ready to do college-level work, and helping those students catch up is expensive.
Then there’s this: The state’s money represented a little less than a third of Sinclair’s revenue in 2009. Not just Sinclair, but every public college in the state is wondering what will happen in two years, when Ohio’s budget isn’t propped up by a ton of stimulus money.
Historically, when money is short, higher education pays the price.
President Johnson is telling his staff that he believes Sinclair can incrementally and significantly raise tuition on a percentage basis without hurting needy students. Many are eligible for generous financial aid, he said. Those who are on the bubble financially will need scholarships that the university has to support, and those who can afford to pay will have to pay more.
While costs have been going through the roof at four-year universities for years, Sinclair has resisted that move. It hasn’t raised tuition in 12 of the last 19 years.
That fact is why many local students who want to attend a four-year college are deciding to take some classes close to home before they start paying the big bucks.
Sinclair is as affordable as it gets. If it can’t be as much of a bargain in the worst of economic times, then the priority has to be making sure that those who can’t pay get exceptional financial help.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Higher Ed, Ohio government
TweetEditorial: Dayton’s SCLC can’t be blase about allegations
The Dayton chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has to take seriously complaints against its board chairman, the Rev. Raleigh Trammell. So far, local board members have shown no interest in them.
Rev. Trammell, a fixture in the local civil rights community for decades, is being investigated by the national SCLC on suspicion that he misappropriated funds while serving as national chairman. He and the SCLC’s treasurer, Spiver Gordon, were suspended from their posts last month, then reinstated by a judge on Jan. 20.
The judge’s ruling was not on the merit of the allegations against Rev. Trammell. Rather, the decision was purely procedural.
The SCLC investigation is ongoing and over the past 10 days officials from the group shared information they’ve gathered with prosecutors in Georgia and Alabama, Mr. Gordon’s home state. They promised to do the same with law enforcement officials here.
Rev. Trammell’s alleged abuses extend to his role in Dayton. A longtime employee of the group here has accused him of sexually harassing her and her teenage daughter. She also claims he misused taxpayer dollars.
The Dayton SCLC and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, which Trammell also heads, last year received at least $200,000 combined in taxpayer funding from the Montgomery County’s Human Services Levy, its job and family services department and the federal government for local programs they operate.
Rev. Trammell’s attorney says he has done nothing wrong, that the allegations originate with an employee who is suspected of financial wrongdoing.
But, in Atlanta, a controversial SCLC investigation has found that at least $569,000 is missing. Some SCLC officials say they can’t access bank accounts controlled by the treasurer, who is an ally of Rev. Trammell, and that $24,450 in SCLC checks were endorsed over to Rev. Trammell.
So far, Rev. Trammell has not responded to his critics at the national SCLC.
Though the national SCLC has been bitterly divided and caught up in its own turmoil, the Dayton SCLC can’t just ignore the investigation. The locals have been reflexively dismissive of the allegations, even though they have fiduciary responsibility for their organization.
“We have more important things to do than deal with these baseless accusations,” Dayton SCLC board member Margaret Peters said last month. “I am not concerned.”
Another board member, Don Black, has been hired by Rev. Trammell to help with his public relations. How can he serve the organization’s interests while he is getting paid to serve Rev. Trammell?
Notwithstanding his work in civil rights, Rev. Trammell has a record that’s not irrelevant. In 1978, he was convicted of felony charges relating to welfare fraud, and he spent more than a year in prison.
Board members have to protect the organizations they serve, not the people who run them. The SCLC has a storied history. Martin Luther King Jr., its first chairman, helped found the group to fight racial segregation.
People who support the organization and its goals deserve answers and explanations. The SCLC’s Dayton leaders haven’t begun to ask questions, let alone insist on answers.
Permalink | Comments (37) | Post your comment | Categories: Civil Rights, Editorials, Scott Elliott
TweetEllen Belcher: Third Frontier’s bumps not all bad
Last week there was lots of jousting in the legislature about whether to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to continue the successful Third Frontier program.
Two points:
— The program was never really in jeopardy. Republicans and Democrats both are sold on the concept that, in order to grow jobs in a knowledge economy, they have to pony up money to universities and entrepreneurs, who then can leverage it to snare research grants and venture capital.
— The Republicans who were resisting and also complaining about how Gov. Ted Strickland has managed the Third Frontier got some of the bullets they were firing from Dayton — specifically the resignation a little over a year ago of Kettering’s Matthew O. Diggs Jr. from the Third Frontier Commission.
On Wednesday, lawmakers approved asking voters for permission to sell $700 million in Third Frontier bonds. The vote was 30-2 in the Republican-controlled Senate; 83-14 in the Democrat-controlled House.
There isn’t that kind of overwhelming consensus in Columbus these days about anything except that children should not play in the street.
It did not emerge because there was agreement to borrow $700 million, not the $1 billion that the governor wanted or the $500 million that the Senate said should be the limit.
Rather, both sides wanted to tap a lot of money; they were just going to push each other around before they voted for something that they’ll all tout this fall in their campaigns.
Not unlike in Washington, the partisan fever in Columbus is high, and there is zero interest in working together, unless the two political parties absolutely must.
With the business community squarely behind the Third Frontier, Republicans couldn’t just say no to the governor, and Democrats couldn’t insist on having things precisely their way if that was going to kill the deal.
February 3 was the last day for them to act to get the bond issue on the May ballot. So the two sides opted for a novel solution — and compromised.
But not before Diggs had become a subtext.
Republicans have been charging that Strickland has to be watched because, if not, he’ll change the Third Frontier rules that were designed to insulate the award process from political influence.
Knowing that criticism was out there, Eric Fingerhut, the chancellor of Ohio’s universities and the chair of the Third Frontier Commission, recently referred to Diggs by name in a meeting with editors from around the state, saying he knew the Republican quit because he disagreed about how a research award was made.
But Fingerhut insisted that Diggs’ complaint wasn’t evidence that the Third Frontier process is being corrupted. Rather, he said he pulled rank, as chancellor, and overruled a recommendation for a particular grant award, giving money to Ohio State University over Toledo University, because OSU’s proposal advanced the marching orders it has under Ohio’s new university system.
Not corruption, not favoritism, a strategic thing, he said emphatically.
Here’s the thing: When former Gov. Bob Taft originated the Third Frontier, its appeal was rooted in the role that was given to the National Academies of Sciences. It was to vet all the research proposals as protection against politics being played (by universities or even the companies that want particular kinds of research subsidized), and the reviewers’ recommendations would be public.
Then if the Third Frontier Commission overruled judgments by outside experts, the whole world would know.
If there’s even a hint that this commitment is being compromised — and Diggs’ resignation sent that signal — that raises the possibility that the integrity of the effort is being toyed with.
In retrospect, Fingerhut under-reacted to the doubts that inevitably were going to result from Diggs’ protest.
(Meanwhile, companies that received Third Frontier money hosted a fundraiser for Democratic House Speaker Armond Budish. That sent another signal to Republicans that Democrats could and would milk the Third Frontier for their benefit.)
Diggs, who is a former CEO of Copeland Corp., says Fingerhut is “one of the good ones” driving things in Columbus. Still, he stands by the message in his resignation letter that the vetting process for evaluating grants has been compromised.
If voters approve this round of Third Frontier bonds, Ohio will be spending more than $2 billion — more than half of it borrowed — over a decade on the program. The great bulk of it will go for research that will strengthen universities and support start-ups that can be the state’s future.
Clearly, there’s no perfect way of deciding who wins and who loses in the award process, but there are definitely wrong ways to pass out the money.
What’s positive about the dust-up that Diggs played a role in is that at least everybody is on notice that if the politicians get loose with the money, they risk being exposed.
The only question is whether that shot across their bow will make voters leery of saying yes to something that Ohio desperately needs.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Economy, Ellen Belcher, Ohio government, Ohio politics
TweetEditorial: Pressure, rewards good Obama combo
President Barack Obama has made one thing clear about his approach to schools — he prefers offering carrots over whacking them with a stick in pursuit of change. That approach could be in for a big test.
The president hinted at major changes to No Child Left Behind, the Bush-era federal education law, in the budget he released this week. His proposals, while still lacking details, mirror some of the good ideas that the administration has tried to entice schools to adopt during the past year.
But the president has a challenge — pushing new ideas while also keeping together the parts of No Child Left Behind that were revolutionary and truly improved schools.
Under President George W. Bush, No Child Left Behind got a bad rap in some quarters as primarily a tool for punishing schools. The law allowed 12 years for all students to achieve “proficiency” — by 2014 — and called out schools that failed to make enough progress toward that goal. As the law demanded more each year, ever more schools have been counted as failing.
Penalties for failing schools are increasingly harsh. Some of their federal money has been redirected to private tutors. Students are allowed to transfer. Failing schools can even be “reconstituted” with a new principal, new teachers and new curriculum.
Educators complain that test scores are not the only evidence of a good school, that too little credit is being given for improvement, and that taking away money, students and staff is often counterproductive.
But there are positives. No Child Left Behind requires schools to track and report test data. Even better, it requires separate tracking of kids who have been ignored — minority, poor and special education students, for example. And it demands that schools raise these students’ scores, too.
It allows parents, teachers and policy makers to understand schools’ performance in ways they never could before.
President Obama wants to reduce some of the heat No Child Left Behind has put on schools. He’s proposing dropping the 2014 proficiency requirement and creating new labels that go beyond pass and fail to recognize more levels of progress. Schools would be measured instead against a yet-undefined goal that kids leave school “college- and career-ready.”
The details will be important. The new standards must be challenging.
So far, President Obama’s education policy has focused on improving standards, testing and data systems; ramping up teaching training and accountability; and transforming the lowest-rated schools into effective ones.
In place of new demands, he’s offered financial incentives, using stimulus dollars. In the past year, the nation’s schools received about $100 billion in stimulus aid, primarily to prevent deep cuts caused by the recession.
Under the federal program Race to the Top, states and school districts that bought into the administration’s reforms can compete for about $5 billion in grants.
Now the president is toying with the idea of distributing a growing chunk of federal poverty money the same way — making districts compete and supporting only those which show progress or innovation.
Tinkering with the formula will be hotly controversial; care must be taken not to penalize kids just because their schools aren’t good at writing grant proposals. President Obama needs to make good on his campaign promise to “mend” not “end” No Child Left Behind.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott
TweetEditorial: WSU faculty too agitated about semester change
The switch over from quarters to semesters at Wright State University suddenly isn’t going well. That’s embarrassing for WSU.
Of the four four-year Ohio universities being required to convert to semesters by the fall of 2012, Wright State is the only one embroiled in a big battle over teaching workload. The union representing professors is so unhappy with the administration’s proposal that it’s urging members to withdraw from a host of committees that are working to fashion courses and schedules to make the change seamless.
That tactic is wrong. The conversion is complex and will require tremendous cooperation among faculty, staff and administration. This is no time to pull up stakes and walk away.
The faculty’s concerns have some merit, but the university’s proposal is reasonable. Forging a workable deal will be tricky, but there is plenty of room for compromise. Both sides are trying to meet important goals. The university has to ensure its new schedule does nothing to drive up costs or reduce revenue. Meanwhile, professors want to be able to juggle their teaching and research.
For faculty, a tension always exists between how much time they spend with students and how much they spend on research and writing. The balance varies among the different departments and schools on campus.
Tenure standards, which require young faculty members to produce important, published scholarship to keep their jobs, are often demanding.
On the quarter system, many faculty now teach two courses in each of the three 10-week quarters during the academic year. (Summer courses make up the fourth quarter). The administration is proposing a maximum teaching load that would appear to keep instruction much the same — three courses for each of the two 15-week semesters.
But, the union argues, that demand is not the same. A professor who is teaching three courses rather than two throughout the academic year must spend considerable extra time planning, grading, teaching and helping students. So the change could lead to less time for other work, raising questions both on broad issues (is the university stepping back from research?) and practical ones (should tenure standards change?).
Still, a three-course maximum teaching load is in line with other institutions of Wright State’s caliber. Administrators are quick to point out that six courses a year is the maximum requirement, not a new standard. But union leaders want more assurance than that.
There are ideas out there — such as designing some new courses to count for four or five credits rather than the standard three credits; that potentially could help make the math work better for professors.
Negotiators for both the union and the administration say they’re optimistic that solutions will be found. But departmental committees doing a lot of the heavy lifting on the new schedule can’t function without the faculty.
The union is wrong to tell professors to drop out of the process. It should back off that strategy.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott
TweetMartin Gottlieb: Two district-drawing plans have merit
Remapping Ohio Politics, Chapter 117.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern, no friend of the effort to take politics out of the drawing of congressional and legislative districts, says, among other things, that the effort lacks political pizzazz.
“You’ll attract about six votes one way or another,” he said. “It’s an issue most Ohioans don’t understand or care to.”
Long experience suggests that’s true.
And yet, really, the issue is pretty simple: If one party can draw the districts, it can maximize its power to a remarkable degree, by concentrating the other party’s reliable voters in a few districts.
If the parties must compromise, that problem is solved. But, still, the parties can collude to make nearly all districts a lock for one party or the other.
However, a way has been found to take the power out of the politicians’ hands, to simply eliminate political motivation in map-drawing.
Last year, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner sponsored a test contest promoted by a coalition of activists, including the League of Women Voters and Ohio Citizen Action.
Entrants were asked to draw congressional districts for the last decade, under certain rules, using population stats from the 2000 Census. The results were remarkable:
Not only the best entries, but the losing entries had maps that were better than the existing map by any nonpartisan standard. Far more districts were compact (as opposed to gerrymandered), and far more could be won by either party.
The case against reform is dead.
Under Ohio’s current rules, all districts in the state legislature are designed by one party (whichever has two offices out of governor, secretary of state and state auditor after the first election in the decade). Congressional districts are decided upon the way a law is passed, involving the legislature and the governor.
When last we met, the Republican state Senate had passed a credible reform measure initiated by Sen. Jon Husted, of Kettering. That left the Democratic House and the voters to act. (Reform requires changing the state constitution, which requires a ballot issue.)
Now Democratic leaders of the House have put up a plan. They missed the deadline for getting something on the May ballot, requiring a move to November. That could doom the whole thing. Partisanship will be at a fever pitch by then; one party is likely to sense victory in races for governor, etc.; that party is unlikely to want reform. If one party turns against it, look out.
What took the Democrats so long is hard to fathom, since they didn’t even have to draw up a plan. They have basically embraced one they were handed by the League and other reformers — all pre-tested and tied in a nice bow — the one used in last year’s contest.
But at least there are now two plans in the legislature, and either would be a dramatic improvement.
The Husted plan would have all district shapes determined by a seven-person commission of elected officials. At least two members would have to come from each party. Any plan would need five votes to pass, and two would have to come from each party.
That’s all good. But it still allows some leeway for the politicians to coalesce into a bipartisan interest group.
The Husted plan does say districts should be compact and competitive, where possible. And it does invite maps from citizens, which could embarrass the politicians into doing right. But it doesn’t offer much of an enforcement mechanism.
The other plan does. It defines competitiveness, compactness and other characteristics in concrete, numerical terms. It invites the public to submit plans in a contest, and it gives points, for example, for every compact district and every competitive one. Between the two plans, that’s the better approach.
Unfortunately, before the Democratic leaders embraced it, they eliminated the congressional element. They have offered no case for that. There is none. They just say that reform will be easier to pass if it isn’t so sweeping. Congressional districts should be added back in.
Beyond that, one good compromise would be to create Husted’s commission and have it work under the contest rules.
Reaching that agreement should be the easy part.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Martin Gottlieb, Ohio government, Ohio politics
TweetGuest column: 3C line will probably suffer from too few passengers
This commentary was provided by Michael Gorman, an associate professor of operations management at the University of Dayton who worked in the rail industry for 10 years.
The $400 million dollar federal subsidy for the 3C rail plan will create badly needed jobs. But it’s short-sighted to ignore the bigger long-term commitment.
Once completed, the backers of the 3C rail plan estimate it will need a $17 million annual subsidy from Ohioans. We need to know this idea will work.
A subsidy for rail service is not by itself a bad thing. Rail service that removes cars from congested roads, and, at the same time, reduces pollution, would benefit everyone, not just those who opt to take the train.
Smart investments in rail in other regions have reduced the need for some highway investment, revived moribund downtowns and limited urban sprawl.
The success of the plan depends entirely on ridership. But how will riders benefit?
It may be a boon to students and the elderly. Some will take the train because it’s fun, or because it’s ecologically friendly. But we can’t build a passenger rail network based on the people who fall in these categories; there simply won’t be enough riders to justify the investment.
The vast majority of projected riders will have a choice, and these riders will look for convenience, economy and fast service. I don’t think they will find it.
For example, under the proposed 3C schedule, a family of four going from Dayton to Cincinnati to spend a day at the zoo would drive to downtown Dayton at 8 a.m., take the 8:24 train for 1.5 hours to downtown Cincinnati, take a bus to Clifton, and be at the zoo no earlier than 10:30 a.m.
They will have to leave the zoo at 3:30, so they can make the last train at 4:15 and are home by 6 p.m.
Total transit time: 5 hours. Total cost: $73. (Four round-trip train tickets at roughly $60, bus fare at $8 and Dayton parking at $5.)
Compare that to driving less than two hours in a car for about $60 ($.51 per mile based on IRS estimates and $10 in parking).
Bengals and Reds fans heading to a 1 p.m. game will have to get there three hours early or risk missing kickoff or the first pitch. They had better hope there’s no overtime or extra innings — they’ll have to miss those to make the train.
The per-mile cost for a commuter or solo business traveler might be lower via rail, making it potentially attractive. But the proposed schedule would get a Daytonian to the train station in Sharonville no earlier than 9:37 a.m., and the rider will need to be back on board by 4:48 p.m. for the trip home.
3C rail planners have optimistically estimated annual ridership will include 35,000 Dayton riders, and that 500,000 riders from this service area — roughly one out of every 14 people — will ride the trains each year. Will you be one of them?
Without sufficient ridership, the proposed benefits to Ohioans are diminished because benefits of reduced traffic congestion and smog are generated when trains are well-used. If ridership is low, the high fixed costs and up-front investments of rail cause the cost per-passenger to skyrocket.
The challenge facing 3C planners is to create a system that provides convenience at a reasonable price to encourage ridership. I hope they succeed, but I’m not sure enough Ohioans will find the proposed rail system either fast or frequent enough to be worthwhile.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Energy, Guest Columns, Transportation
TweetGuest column: Overall, passenger rail line will be good for Ohio
This commentary was provided by Steve Harrod, assistant professor of operations management at the University of Dayton. He specializes in transportation issues.
Will the 3C Corridor be a success?
That depends on how you define “success.”
After 30 years of frustration and false starts, this train would be the first north-south passenger service in Ohio since 1971. That is an achievement in its own right.
It also would be the most visible passenger train in Ohio, because shockingly, it will operate during the day. Readers may be excused if they are unaware that Ohio has any passenger trains at all, as these trains slip through in the middle of the night on their way to Chicago or Washington.
Will your son or daughter come home more often by train from Ohio State? Yes.
Will some business people enjoy working on their laptop while rolling toward Cincinnati? Yes.
Will the service stimulate real-estate development adjacent to stations? Yes.
Will it make money? No, and this question irritates me to no end.
If the 3C service had begun last year, it would have carried 478,000 passengers at an average ticket price of $25. Each one of those tickets, on average, would have required a government subsidy of $35. For many readers, this is evidence of failure, but, again, define your measurements.
The “profit” measurement for passenger rail is biased. None of our transportation modes is self-supporting, and the subsidies to automobile use are especially tenacious and far-reaching.
Our automobile transportation system is hard-wired into every aspect of our economic system. Zoning laws require properties to provide parking according to a formula. That “free” parking at your local McDonald’s is included in the cost of your “value meal.”
My local township spent approximately $4 million on road maintenance last year, and the majority of this was raised from property taxes, not fees directly tied to car ownership. Those roads required police and fire rescue services, and those too are funded by property taxes.
Oh, and by the way, railway lines are subject to property taxes, too.
Pardon the pun, but in spite of all these favors, road financing is headed for a train wreck. Highways are supposed to be funded from fuel taxes, but those tax revenues have been declining in proportion to vehicle miles traveled, which are also in decline due to the recession.
The Ohio Department of Transportation projects a middle-range scenario of a $1.5 billion deficit in the state highway fund by 2017. The federal highway trust fund is facing billions upon billions of shortfall right now.
But is it only about money? What about the value or quality of life received from this subsidy?
To see a vision of the future, visit that auto-centric land, sunny San Diego. It made public policy and real-estate development commitments to rail more than 30 years ago.
Eleven trains a day connect San Diego to Los Angeles. These trains are popular. The downtown station, a short walk from the ocean, is surrounded by beautiful new condominium towers.
At the station you can catch a streetcar that will take you to the convention center, hotels, some of the best nightlife in California or the Mexican border.
The 3C Corridor will be a success. It will be a fundamental amenity that will enhance the quality of life in the major metropolitan areas of Ohio. It will stimulate denser, urban housing and commercial development.
It will provide more alternatives, more mobility, and, in that sense, it will also be a tangible expression of the American dream of freedom and opportunity.
Permalink | Comments (27) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Energy, Guest Columns, Local Business, Transportation
TweetEditorial: New poor put pressure on suburbs
Five years ago, West Carrollton’s school breakfast program was small and not on Superintendent Rusty Clifford’s mind very often.
Today, feeding kids before school is a priority, and lots more qualify for the federal program.
Five years ago, the district also didn’t offer language classes for kids learning English. Today, it has four teachers dedicated to that, and a fifth is needed.
“The demographics have shifted dramatically in the 11 years I’ve been here,” Mr. Clifford says.
Last month, a slew of new poverty data said Dayton and its suburbs are experiencing big jumps in poverty. Both the city and its surrounding communities ranked in the top 10 in the country for poverty growth in their respective categories. Managing the increase is putting new pressure on communities that have historically not had to deal with significant clusters of poverty.
Consider schools, for instance, since they are among the first to feel the effects when family incomes drop. Kids start showing up at school unprepared, with too few supplies, lacking coats, even hungry.
According to Ohio Department of Education poverty statistics, West Carrollton had the fastest growth in school poverty in the Dayton area during the past five years, jumping 29.4 points to 49.4 percent. Roughly every other child is now poor.
“We definitely notice it,” Mr. Clifford says.
Right behind West Carrollton is Dayton. Though the district was reporting that a troubling 62.5 percent of kids were in poverty in 2005, that figure has jumped to a stunning 89 percent today.
It’s a remarkable figure. Nearly nine out of every 10 Dayton schoolchildren come from a family that qualified for free or reduced lunch, meaning that, for a family of four, their household income was below $41,000.
Rounding out the top five biggest poverty-gainers in the Dayton area during the last five years are Mad River (up 18 points to 41 percent); New Lebanon (up 17 points to 40 percent); and Troy (up 14 points to 36 percent).
Clearly, the problem has remarkable breadth. The top five include Dayton, two contiguous suburbs, an outlying suburb and a self-contained small city.
Indeed, poverty reaches into every type of community in the Dayton area. Of the 41 school districts in Montgomery, Greene, Miami and Warren counties, only five — Oakwood, Centerville, Springboro, Mason and Bethel — have a poverty rate below 10 percent.
Those facing new poverty challenges could learn from West Carrollton. In 2004, the community embraced a program that focuses on helping children learn 40 specific attributes that can help them in life. About 22 can be learned in school. They include qualities such as being committed to learning and motivating yourself to achieve.
But others are community-based. They include connecting children with adult role models and instilling community values.
Mr. Clifford credits this effort with helping the district’s state report card rating actually improve even as its student body was becoming poorer. That’s a real achievement.
Communities dealing with big poverty pressures for the first time have to start right away to rally community resources to support poor families.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott, Suburban Communities
TweetMartin Gottlieb: A response to Goldberg on Obama
Jonah Goldberg has a column saying Obama is an ideologue whether he admits it or not. This after Obama said “I am not an ideologue” at his meeting with House Republicans Friday.
But Goldberg really doesn’t get at the point in contention. His point is that Obama is an ideologue in the sense that everybody with a strong political orientation is an ideologue.
“The president invokes his or America’s ‘values’ to justify a ban on waterboarding, passage of universal health care, sustaining legalized abortion, higher taxes for the wealthy, gay equality and — coming soon — a more expedient system for selecting a college football champion. Those all involve pursuing ideological ends.”
That is an extraordinarily broad definition of ideology. The word came into usage not as a synonym for “set of values” but as a reference to very specific doctrines like communism and socialism.
It has evolved. Liberals use it about conservatives to mean people who have predictable, knee-jerk responses to everything, always — in the economic realm, at least — saying the problem is too much government. Conservatives paint liberals as people who always think more government is the answer.
Obama was saying, that’s not who I am. If you’ve got a small-government solution, great; let’s hear it.
Some surely will find that disingenuous, to one degree or another. Fine. Goldberg will probably write that column one day, if he hasn’t. Ultimately, it matter less what the Republican writers say, than what the Republican politicians do, by way of taking Obama up on his offer.
Why write the column Goldberg wrote, all semantics? Presumably because the conservatives would rather oppose an ideologue than a pragmatist. Better to paint your opponent as someone in the grip of controversial values than as an open-minded fact monger.
But there’s more. As Goldberg’s column suggests, he’s perfectly happy to be considered an ideologue, even if he knows the word has a certain negative connotation to most people. (He’s not running for office, after all, just playing to a niche of readers.) He’s probably pretty typical of conservative columnists in that regard.
Most liberals, though, really do not think of themselves as ideologues. They will admit to having different values from conservatives, but they insist they are committed to no ideology as way of promoting those values, but to whatever works. Sometimes, in these times, that means government action. But many are eager to tell you all the realms in which they are leery of government.
For me, if anybody cares, liberalism is the very antithesis of ideology, not of conservatism. Open-mindedness is the whole point, albiet in pursuit of certain values, roughly categorized, I suppose, as humanist. But I do think liberalism sometimes hardens into something very much like ideology. I think Obama was saying, in part, that he is aware of that possibility and tries to guard against it.
Permalink | Comments (26) | Post your comment | Categories: Martin Gottlieb, National Politics
TweetEditorial: United Way has to get on, stay on track
United Way of Greater Dayton’s finances have not just been slipping. They’ve been dropping like a rock.
In 2005, the organization raised $11.7 million. Last year donations were $9.5 million. This week the fundraising drive, which likely will be extended beyond the normal February closing, had just shy of $7.6 million in pledges.
The hope is that the current campaign will not dip below last year’s amount, that the organization has hit rock bottom. A lot of work is going to have to happen quickly for that goal to be met.
It’s this context that makes some past spending and priorities look seriously out of whack. While revenue has been sinking, administrative expenses at least through 2007 were going up, including former Executive Director Marc Levy’s salary.
Meanwhile, the amount the agency was spending on fundraising — fundamentally United Way’s mission — was being scaled back.
The outreach to companies and individuals that United Way does each and every year costs money. That work also has become increasingly more expensive because Dayton has fewer big companies with hundreds or thousands of employees who can be solicited easily through company or union campaigns.
More people, making more contacts — even if many are volunteers — is not cheap.
In looking at United Way’s 990 forms — documents that non-profits are required to file with the Internal Revenue Service — staff writer Jim DeBrosse found that former United Way director Mr. Levy’s salary went from $182,655 in 2005 to $222,633 in 2008.
At the same time, the agency was reporting deficits, including a $1 million shortfall at the end of fiscal year 2008.
Mr. Levy left for Portland, Ore., in the fall of 2008. His successor, Allen Elijah, is earning a little more than half as much, and the agency has eliminated about 40 full-time positions.
If the temptation is to applaud the change in course, it’s worth remembering that there was no choice. The agency was heading toward a financial crisis.
Charity Navigator, which is a watchdog of nonprofits, gave United Way its lowest rating, one star out of a possible four, for the three years between 2005 and 2007.
That ranking is based on a paper analysis — looking at what the United Way reports and how that data stacks up relative to other charities.
The agency’s small financial cushion and deficits were what hurt it the most. The organization has not rated United Way for 2008 yet.
The community is the poorer without a healthy United Way. Many small nonprofits can’t afford to do fundraising, or, if they try, the effort consumes an inordinate amount of their time relative to the financial payback.
For them, United Way’s work and allocations are a godsend.
From the consumer’s standpoint, participating through workplace giving is convenient and hassle-free. There are no checks to mail, no credit card transactions to make, and, once you sign up, most of us don’t miss the amount we’re donating because it automatically comes out of our paychecks.
All of us can think of a charity or a cause that’s deserving of a few of our dollars.
Dayton’s United Way decided last year not to merge with Cincinnati’s United Way. The rationale was that directors want to keep the focus on Dayton-area charities, to ensure that those needs aren’t overlooked or minimized.
OK, but if that’s the choice, this United Way has to be run effectively, aggressively and especially efficiently. A shaky or crumbling United Way helps no one.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Social Services
TweetMartin Gottlieb: Compromising with Obama, the destroyer of America
Quite matter-of-factly and calmly, state Rep. Seth Morgan, R-Huber Heights, said at this newspaper a few weeks ago that President Barack Obama is “slowly destroying America.”
So it was striking last week when Obama talked about the people who say that about him.
In his public meeting with House Republicans, his overarching point was that there’s a certain tension between their insistence that they want to compromise with him and their portrayal of him as somebody who’s “doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America.”
How, after all, are they supposed to justify compromising with somebody like that?
Morgan isn’t in Congress, but the point remains.
On the other hand, perhaps, there’s Congressman Steve Austria, R, of Greene County and Springfield. At least in the wake of the Obama meeting, he was saying, “We are all going to have to take a step back” from confrontation. He embraced the tax credit and capital gains portions of the new Obama proposal on job creation, and he noted with satisfaction what the president said months ago on tort reform.
Asked what he might be willing to accept that he doesn’t like — what concessions Republicans might make — he had no specifics. But he spoke of the need for a “two-way street.” And he refrained from harping on past slights.
So, as a matter of fact, did Republican leader John Boehner, of West Chester, in a post-meeting press conference. Offered a chance to take a swipe at the president’s comments about past Republican practices, he generally resisted, saying only that it was a “frank discussion.”
Still, there’s no question that Republican voices — in and outside of Congress — have been whipping the party’s “base” into a frenzy. The “death squads” charge about health care was launched from Congress. Conservatives got to the point where they’d believe anything, even that the president was going to use a speech to schoolchildren as an opportunity to push his “socialist agenda.”
This newspaper ran a column Monday in which Mona Charen considered the president’s state of the union speech. She said he’s a “left-wing ideologue.”
“Raised in a left-wing cocoon, he has never given evidence of being anything other than a true-believing left/liberal…. He is not going to tack to the political center.”
And yet, in that very speech, he had proposed a tax credit for some small businesses and a capital gains tax break, more nuclear plants, more offshore drilling, a three-year freeze in domestic spending that can legally be frozen, support for more trade agreements that his liberal friends are skeptical of, a rule requiring that any new spending (or tax cuts) be offset by deficit-cutting measures, and a bipartisan commission to propose ways to bring the deficit under control, preferably with a rule requiring that Congress accept or reject the proposals in their entirety.
One particularly illuminating exchange happened at his meeting with Republicans. Their third-ranking leader, Rep. Mike Pence, of Indiana, asked the president why in the world he would enact his $800 billion stimulus when he could have gotten twice the stimulus for half the money with a Republican proposal.
Obama’s response was, why, indeed, would I do that? Twice the effect for half the money would be wonderful. I just consulted with economists from the left and right and found they didn’t believe what you just said.
“I’m not an ideologue,” he said, to some laughter from the Charen-minded in the room.
Many of such bent believe that the answer to Blount’s “why” question is simply that Obama is out to enlarge government. It’s an article of faith, a given. But, most likely, no such goal has ever occurred to him.
For too long before last week, Obama was weak about addressing ideology specifically. Like most liberals, he always brings the discussion back to why specific policy changes are needed. He pays a price for letting charges like “socialism” go unrebutted.
His problems now aren’t just in Washington. As historian Richard Norton Smith says, “If you look at the way the media has been transformed and the way the White House is covered, the bully pulpit itself is in danger of being drowned out by talk radio, cable and now Twitter.”
Obama has talked much about his desire to change the hyperpartisan atmosphere in American politics. Toward that end, he should do more of what he did with the Republicans: engage with and confront his critics in person, publicly, gently.
That might not help him win all his battles, but it’d undermine the most absurd charges. It’d help bring politics someplace closer to reality, to sanity.
Permalink | Comments (40) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Locals in national affairs, Martin Gottlieb, National Politics
TweetEditorial: Kasich tax plan looks like one more problem for Ohio
When a Republican state legislator from Sidney recently proposed eliminating the Ohio income tax over 10 years, he said he’d be lucky to get one hearing, given that Democrats control the House of Representatives.
Well, he got lucky. And the Democrats said more hearings are coming. They’re actually trying to focus all the attention they possibly can on his idea.
That’s because John Kasich, Republican candidate for governor, also wants to eliminate the tax gradually.
The Democrats are raising an alarm.
The tax raises about 40 percent of state revenue.
Rep. John Adams, of Sidney (not to be confused with state Rep. Richard Adams, of Miami County) insists that his 10-year plan will actually increase government revenues.
You know the argument he makes: “When the people we chase out of the state (under current tax laws) decide to stay, they will create jobs. The tax base will expand. That’s the way it works in every scenario.”
That, of course, is why Ohio is now rolling in revenue, having adopted a gradual cut in income taxes in 2005.
That’s sarcasm. The 2005 act has not worked any miracles, has it?
(It also included elimination of taxes that were said to be hurting business. And it created a very low CAT — commercial activity tax — to make up part of the difference.)
Mr. Kasich says he can’t offer specifics about how and when he’d eliminate the income tax, because the current budget is in turmoil. It must be stabilized first.
But he has no gripe coming about the people who criticize his proposal anyway, as the Democrats are doing. After all, the general idea has won him plenty of support, too, revving up conservatives, resulting in donations and other help.
His Web site notes that he is celebrated by Human Events, the conservative-warrior magazine. It praises him for a plan that is “conservative as well as adventurous” and includes “phasing out the state income tax.” It’s the big idea associated with him. The magazine writes that Mr. Kasich “noted that the state in the Midwest that attracts the most business is Indiana, and ‘that’s because Indiana has a governor who understands business and how to attract it.’”
It’s an interesting reference.
In response to the Kasich plan, the Associated Press took a look at how Ohio compares with other states on taxes. It quotes an outfit called the Tax Foundation that has criticized Ohio on taxes. Says the AP:
“The Foundation also said that although Ohio’s top income tax rate of 5.925 percent is about average nationally and regionally, add-ons at the local level are unusually high. When state and local taxes are added together, Indiana is the only Ohio neighbor with higher taxes.”
AP looked at the nine states that have no income tax. Turns out, four collect more money per-person in state taxes than Ohio. And others are close. Florida collects about $350 less per year than Ohio’s $2,288 and Texas about $450 less.
Why would their substitutes be better? At least with income taxes — unlike property taxes — you know that the payers actually have some income.
Truth is, in Ohio, the property tax — not the income tax — generates the most complaints. Calls for change in income taxes come not so much from the public as from ideological warriors, from conservative movement people who have a one-size-fits-all agenda for every state.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Editorials, Elections, Martin Gottlieb, Ohio government, Ohio politics
TweetEditorial: Ohio must market itself better
Gov. Ted Strickland’s State of the State speech offered an impressive litany of things that recommend Ohio. They don’t necessarily recommend the governor himself — any more than the better-known list of negative statistics about the state can necessarily be blamed on him.
But they are worth remembering. To name some:
*Ohio ranks first among the states for renewable and advanced energy manufacturing projects.
*The Council of State Governments said Ohio ranked first last year for the total number of new green jobs created.
*Ohio residents pay 10 percent less for electricity than the national average.
*The Small Business and Entrepreneurship council ranks Ohio’s business climate 11th in the nation.
*Ohio is the only state where exports have grown every year since 1998.
*Venture capital investments have been growing more than 20 percent per year, which is two times the rate of growth nationwide.
*Ohio’s colleges have had the lowest increase in tuition in the country during the last three years (though it must be said that the cost was high to begin with).
*The Pew Center on the States said, as state budgets go, Ohio is not in as much financial distress as many other.
*Ohio has the seventh-most aggressive energy standards, which is important in spurring utility companies to provide new types of power.
Ohio too often doesn’t get credit for these attributes (and others). The state has always, it seems, been notoriously bad at packaging its advantages and promoting them. We proceed as if we think people will just happen to notice or discover Ohio’s special qualities, and the facts will speak for themselves.
In an age when marketing has never been more sophisticated, relentless and omnipresent, Midwestern humility really can be a problem.
Maybe Ohio can work a trade with people who are better at this sort of thing. Gov. Strickland said in this remarks that Cincinnati’s Procter & Gamble is excited to have cut a deal with Ohio universities whereby it will start relying more on their research capacities. The company, he said, has come to the realization that, on its own, its can never have enough people working to foster new products and improvements in existing ones.
To ensure this sort of cooperation can happen easily, the governor said Ohio has created a model contract that will take the hassle out of negotiating research agreements (which can be complicated because of concerns about patents, licenses and whatnot).
Such collaborations and knowledge exchanges are the way of the world today.
But has anyone ever thought about getting P&G — and others like it — to share some marketing prowess with the state?
That company can sell shampoo to bald people and improved detergent to people who already have clean clothes. Surely, there’s something state government can learn from it.
If Ohio’s strengths have a low profile, blaming the public for not knowing them doesn’t make much sense.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Ohio government
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