Badin vs. Fredericktown
Miamisburg graduation 2012
Valley View vs. Greenville
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.
Scott Elliott is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He writes about education, city and suburban issues, politics, business, workforce and consumer issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > June > 10
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Guest column: Article, editorial distorted situation at Miami-Jacobs
This article was written by Darlene Waite, president of Miami-Jacobs Career College.
A few weeks ago, we sat down with members of the Dayton Daily News editorial board and Reporter Christopher Magan in an attempt to clear up false information being disseminated about Miami-Jacobs Career College.
For the past few months, the Dayton Daily News has been reporting on accusations from a few disgruntled students — without regard to all the facts.
We provided background information, supplied facts to replace false allegations, and acknowledged where we had issues with one program accreditation body and one approval board. We explained how we are addressing these issues.
We have hired consultants to address these issues, and we expect this to be resolved soon.
We are accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, which is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. We’re authorized by the Ohio Board of Regents to offer associate degrees. We are approved by the Ohio Board of Career Colleges and Schools.
Additionally, we have programmatic accreditation for several of our programs.
The students in all of our programs are able to sit for the appropriate certification or licensure exams and obtain well-paying jobs.
After our meeting, the Dayton Daily News published an article on May 24, followed by an editorial on May 30, written by editorial writer Scott Elliott. The article, and to a lesser degree the editorial, ignored important factual information.
For the facts, let’s start at the beginning.
Most important, we have been educating and training Dayton-area students for 150 years. We regularly survey employers, observe changes in workforce needs and changes in technology and develop courses and programs to specifically meet the needs of employers.
The Dayton Daily News charges us to “deliver” on our promises. We have delivered. The result is a placement rate of 92 percent for all graduates.
While our graduation rate is in line with other area schools, our placement assistance is second to none. We work with students and employer/partners to match trained graduates with appropriate career positions.
Based on our strong and long history, we have grown to nearly 2,400 students. We have added four new campuses in Ohio since 2005; and the truly inspiring results of our programs can be witnessed in mid-June, when approximately 900 area students will graduate.
Nine out of 10 will join the workforce as contributing citizens, employees and taxpayers.
The article and editorial got some of the facts right, but often the information was taken out of context or was missing an important nuance that would allow readers, in a more balanced way, to fully understand Miami-Jacobs’ position.
It was reported, for instance, that the college has had issues since the corporate takeover. The two are in no way related.
We carefully explained the accreditation or approval status of two of our programs, the actions we have already taken, and plans already in place to address any issues and further enhance the quality of all of our programs.
The editorial board mistakenly jumped to the conclusion, and erroneously assumed, that the acquisition was at the heart of these issues. We vigorously defended against that notion, but the editorial board chose to make it anyway.
Most egregious, however, was the erroneous headline on May 24. It said we shut down two programs; this is completely false. We never stated that we were shutting down these programs; we clearly stated that we elected to suspend new enrollment into two of our programs until current issues were resolved.
Every day at Miami-Jacobs we celebrate with our students whose lives we have changed by educating and training them for successful careers. We applaud them and their accomplishments.
We would not have been able to stay relevant and strong this long without our ability to determine what Dayton employers need and by educating and training members of our community to meet those needs.
We have a long history of proud graduates, all of whom can be potentially hurt by the continuing inaccuracies regarding their alma mater.
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Editorial: When will Ohio stop the ripoff
The payday lending sharks bought themselves more time.
Ohio senators went home for the summer without doing anything to stop them from ripping off people. Specifically, they didn’t vote on good controls the House has approved.
Here’s the deal: A few senators are thick with the industry and are standing in the way of what the overwhelming majority of Ohioans and most lawmakers want. Oddly, Ohio Senate President Bill Harris, a critic of the industry, is letting them have their way.
While he’s appeasing payday operators, yet another critical report on the businesses is out. The information in the National Consumer Law Center’s “Stopping the Payday Loan Trap” isn’t new. It’s one more compelling recitation of data explaining how people are sucked into borrowing money at sinful interest rates.
In 2008, Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a law putting strict interest rate caps on payday businesses; lawmakers had become convinced of the damage the outfits do.
Then the payday industry tried to undo that decision by passing a referendum. Voters endorsed the caps.
We’re still talking about the issue today, however, because the payday people are beating the law. Some are operating as “credit service organizations,” which are supposed to counsel people how to get out of debt. The advice payday people give: take out a payday loan.
On paper, the businesses have lowered their rates, but they’re still raking it in by charging customers fat fees — including to cash checks the payday stores have written to customers.
Do they think they’re going to bounce?
There is unquestionably a market for short-term loans. People living paycheck to paycheck will run short sometimes. It’s costly to pay your rent late.
But the payday industry is built around getting people to take out loan after loan, each of which has high fees and/or interest rates. People can end up paying effective rates of 400 percent on an annualized basis.
State Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, voted for a 28 percent cap when he was in the Ohio House. Sen. Fred Strahorn, D-Dayton, voted against that legislation. Now in the Senate, Sen. Strahorn is not budging. His position is indefensible.
Meanwhile, banks are jumping into this business, too. Fifth Third, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank are all offering short-term loans that, though not as pricey as traditional payday loans, are still shamefully costly.
Fifth Third, for example, charges $1 per $10 borrowed, for an APR of 120 percent. When you sign up, you agree to pay back the loan with your next big automatic deposit, typically your paycheck.
In other words, there’s little risk the bank will lose any money. Moreover, the publicized APR is generously calculated on the assumption that you borrow the money for the longest possible period. If, however, you borrow it right before pay day, your real rate spikes.
The National Consumer Law Center is especially critical of banks’ ability to get customers to effectively sign over their paychecks. It says that’s subverting debt-collection laws.
The maximum amount of disposable income a debt collector can garnishee from your wages is 25 percent. (The theory is that people have to eat and keep up with other bills.) Yet, banks are potentially taking much more.
Fifth Third literature discourages people from habitually taking the loans and a spokeswoman said the “service” is only for its banking customers, that the company doesn’t market the product widely.
Consumers who tap credit they can’t really afford are responsible for their own problems. But there is a public interest in not allowing them to abuse themselves — or be abused — easily. When that happens, society ends up paying.
Whether the borrowers go bankrupt or need public assistance or stop feeding their children, the rest of us pay for their recklessness.
The idea that government would allow businesses to do that is destructive public policy.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Ohio government, Ohio politics, Predatory lending
Editorial: Worst injustice was to Griffey, not Galarraga
More than any other sport, baseball is about history.
The sport has lots of it. Records of the professional game date back more than 130 years to the 1870s. So baseball fans have something of an obsession with history — and perfection.
Last week, there was a tremendous injustice in the game. A player who flirted with perfection was denied a deeply deserved fete.
It had nothing to do with Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga, who was stymied on the last out of what would have been just the 20th perfect game in baseball history by perhaps the worst umpiring call ever made.
Don’t cry for Mr. Galarraga. If anything, his place in the lore of the game is more secure. Whenever there is a terribly botched umpiring call, the first name off the tongue of baseball fans everywhere will be Mr. Galarraga’s. Every time a perfect game is thrown, fans won’t recall similar feats by legends like Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, and Randy Johnson. Chances are Mr. Galarraga’s name will come up first in that conversation.
One of the beauties of baseball is that it allows the Armando Galarragas their shining moments. Even a nine-year minor leaguer with a 21-18 lifetime record in the big leagues can be perfect for a night.
But there is a special place reserved in the game for those who are near perfect night in and night out — the Hall of Fame. Just 231 players are enshrined in the Hall, or .01 percent of the 16,000 players in baseball history.
That’s why ex-Cincinnati Red and future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.’s overlooked retirement last week in the hoopla of the umpire malfunction was the real injustice.
As a young player, Mr. Griffey brought an exciting brand of baseball to the Seattle Mariners and lifted a moribund franchise that was for sale and likely to leave town to the American League championship series. How many Hall of Famers are personally responsible for the success of a franchise and for making a city fall in love with baseball?
Then there are Mr. Griffey’s extraordinary numbers. He is fifth all-time in home runs with 630, behind a short list of names you may know — Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. He also was a Gold Glove outfielder, a base stealer and a clutch hitter like few have ever seen.
Sadly, Mr. Griffey was not always recognized for his greatness in his prime because he played in the steroid era. Players now known to have been using performance-enhancing drugs (Mr. Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa) performed even greater feats in Mr. Griffey’s best years, obscuring the best — and cleanest — player of his generation.
There is no suspicion of cheating with Mr. Griffey because he notoriously disliked weightlifting. Without the weights and the “juice,” Mr. Griffey suffered the natural decline and injuries that come with age. Sadly, the injuries marred the Cincinnati native’s eight-year hometown return with the Reds. (Other stars during that time took steroids for speedier recovery from injury and to reverse the effects of aging.)
In the long run, history will judge Mr. Griffey as an elite Hall of Famer and he will be appreciated as being among the greatest of baseball’s great players.
Last week’s baseball buzz should have been all about the end of his stellar career. It’s one more cruel irony that he was overshadowed by a middling pitcher and an umpire’s gaffe.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Scott Elliott, Sports and Recreation
