The second letter writer states houses in “his neighborhood” are not selling. I’d contend not passing school levies is hardly the reason. Bottom line: The real estate market has been under pressure, especially in this area, for years. If not passing school levies is the cause, then houses would not be selling in Beavercreek, Springboro or … you get the picture.
In the future, I'd suggest a little less emotional outpouring and a lot more attention to the facts — like you learn going to school. JOHN SCHIRTZINGER, CENTERVILLE
Ohio students among those who suffer
Gov. John Kasich’s tax cuts sound great until you realize the true cost.
His proposed income tax cut would save an average of $10,369 for the wealthiest 1 percent of Ohioans and $1,524 for the next 4 percent.
While the governor puts money into the pockets of the wealthiest Ohioans, he takes away from some of the Ohioans who need funding the most: Ohio’s students. While he gives money to the wealthy, he cuts the amount of state spending for each student from $5,732 to $5,000, a 13 percent decrease. Multiply that $732 by the number of students in each school district and you realize how substantial that cut is.
Most experts agree that we need at least $6,000 per student from the state, under the Kasich funding model, to provide an adequate education for Ohio’s children. Otherwise, Ohio schools will be forced to continue to cut out advanced placement courses, art, music, world languages, etc. Our children will be left with reading, math and standardized tests.
Upon graduation, Ohio students will face more challenges as they attempt to pay for college. In the governor’s last budget, he slashed $440 million from public colleges, and his new budget only restores $68 million. Which is better for Ohio families: Increased funding of public colleges, so college is affordable, or tax breaks for the wealthy?
The governor can talk about lower taxes all he wants, but his lower taxes for the wealthy equal a lower standard of living for the rest of us. DAVID A. ROMICK, DAYTON. MR. ROMICK IS PRESIDENT, DAYTON EDUCATION ASSOCIATION.
Look at what Reich calls ‘progress’
Re “There were reasons to be cynical back in 1968, too,” May 22: In comparing today’s cynicism to that of 1968, Robert Reich cites all the positive reforms and changes that have occurred since 1968 in our society, in his opinion. According to Reich, some of this positive “progress” includes women’s rights over their own bodies, including the legal right to abortion, women outnumbering men in college, gay and lesbian marriage and a higher rate of college enrollment among Hispanics than whites. Reich says we’ve just begun and need to do much more. Indeed, it sounds like Reich will be happy when the demise of white males in this country is complete and that we will be much better off when they are all but gone.
It’s no wonder that Reich doesn’t mention more “progress” that his radically liberal philosophy has brought us since 1968: The trend in divorce, teenage sex, premarital sex, out-of-wedlock birth, single-parenting, absent fathers, school dropouts, drug abuse and addiction, the high percentage of college students who need remedial work and those who start but never graduate, illiteracy, late-term abortion, lack of respect for life, lack of respect for self, and lack of respect for authority.
And indeed, we are on a path to make even more of Reich’s “progress”: Open gays in the military, Boy Scouts and even the NBA, with straights forced to give up their right to sexual privacy; parents providing safe-sex rooms in their homes for their children; over-the-counter morning-after pills for 11- and 12-year-old girls; distribution of free birth-control to grade-school children; women in combat, even as sexual abuse in the military skyrockets, etc.
Yep, we need lots more of Reich's concept of "progress;" otherwise, we're being unnecessarily cynical. JOSEPH BRAFFORD, BEAVERCREEK
Speak Up
With defeat after defeat, in district after district, it becomes apparent that residents of the Miami Valley want the best education for their children that Walmart prices can buy, while at the same time absolving themselves of any personal responsibility.
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