Decision 2010: Yes on 5: Waiting with Kryptonite
Written by Michael Miller | Editor in Chief | mmiller@toledofreepress.comThe documentary film “Waiting for ‘Superman’” has inspired a great deal of local conversation regarding the state of Toledo Public Schools (TPS). At the beginning of the film, education reformer Geoffrey Canada talks about his heartbreak at discovering that Superman wasn’t real. Canada earnestly explains to the camera that as a child he grieved because if there was no Superman, there was no one coming to rescue him from the poverty-stricken, fatherless life he lived in the South Bronx.
At this point, TPS has long given up on Superman; the beleaguered system would probably be happy with even the lowliest backbencher hero — Aquaman, maybe. The Wonder Twins. Harvey Birdman. Hell, if someone put a cape around a mop and paraded it down Manhattan Boulevard it would be a cause for celebration.
On May 4, voters rejected Issue 3, a proposed 0.75 percent tax to help TPS. Since then, TPS closed Libbey High School, cut athletics and drastically modified bus service.
On July 13, the TPS board named Jerome Pecko as the system’s new superintendent. (The competition, Tom Watkins, removed himself from consideration, offering the blunt and insightful explanation that he could not work with the TPS Board of Education, which he described as “not united,” the most generous understatement since someone described the Detroit Lions as “not competitive.”)
In that same session, TPS announced it would seek a 7.8-mill levy on the November ballot. In a depressed market suffering from increasingly crushing financial pressures, a 7.8-mill levy request was the Hail Mary equivalent of closing one’s eyes while driving against traffic on the Anthony Wayne Trail; it seemed doomed from inception.
But here we are, hours from the Nov. 2 election, and the Toledo community is being asked to approve Issue 5, a permanent levy that will annually collect $22 million of local homeowners’ earnings. If it fails, Pecko said up to 400 TPS jobs could be in jeopardy, and there could be more school closings.
It has been interesting to watch the community’s reaction to Issue 5. The 7.8-mill levy inspired some wishy-washy prose from The Blade, offered an Oct. 18 unsigned editorial endorsing the levy, which it summarized with a hold-your-nose-and-vote “gulp.”
The Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce did not endorse TPS Issue 3 in May, stating it “will not address the systemic financial issues that are currently plaguing the district and which will continue to affect the district’s budgets in the future.” The chamber said the levy “will harm the job climate by increasing the overall tax burden” and that while “the chamber is concerned for the difficulties that face the district, it believes the necessary decisions need to be made by TPS to address the growing deficits projected over the next four to five years. The chamber believes further cuts in state funding face TPS and the district should face the reality of their budgetary concerns.”
On Oct. 26, the chamber did an about-face and endorsed Issue 5, stating, “The Chamber Board(1) is committed to pursuing appropriate actions to improve TPS by mobilizing the business community to facilitate change, realizing that the most important reason to support the levy is that the district must provide a quality education for the students.”
Mayor Mike Bell(2) endorsed the levy with his characteristic clarity: “If our schools are failing, our city’s going to fail,” he said.
Another strong endorsement came from United Way of Greater Toledo, which announced its choice after an Oct. 24 community screening of “Waiting for ‘Superman’.”
Bill Kitson(3), United Way of Greater Toledo president and CEO, said, “The bottom line is this is about kids. Period. Our children are too important for us to stand on the sidelines.”
If you believe the narrative of “Waiting for ‘Superman’,” one of the primary factors that is strangling education is the system of union contracts and tenure that protects lousy teachers and lets great ones go unrewarded.
At a forum following the Oct. 24 screening, when Toledo Federation of Teachers President Francine Lawrence was asked what the union would do if Issue 5 fails, she replied, “Ask for teacher raises,” which tells you all you need to know about her sense of humor, her deficit of self-awareness when it comes to her role in the ongoing TPS drama and who the joke is really on.
Will voters agree with these community leaders and vote for Issue 5? I do not have faith that Toledo voters truly want TPS to ask itself the hard questions. If they did, they would have re-elected Darlene Fisher.
Should voters agree with these community leaders and vote for Issue 5? Should they make another sacrifice, trust a system that mocks that trust and commit more money to what has basically been a roaring furnace that incinerates funds with a never-ceasing hunger?
Yes. Because despite all the arguments against it, to do otherwise is to not just give up on Superman; to do otherwise is to sink Toledo in a molten pit of permanent Kryptonite.
Michael S. Miller(4) is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Call him at (419) 241-1700 or e-mail him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.
1. Toledo Free Press Publisher Tom Pounds is a member of the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.
2. Mike Bell does not have any children attending TPS, although he does live in Toledo and will be subject to the tax.
3. Bill Kitson does not have any children attending TPS, nor does he live in Toledo, so he will not be subject to the tax.
4. I do not have any children attending TPS, nor do I live in Toledo, so I will not be subject to the tax.
Tags: Bill Kitson, Jerome Pecko, Lighting The Fuse, Michael S. Miller, Mike Bell, Toledo Public Schools, Waiting for Superman
Vote Yes for Issue 5 to keep our community alive!
This comment was posted on October 29th, 2010 at 12:20 amWhen you are faced with a Drug addict, you have two choices.
1. enable them by giving them money to buy more drugs and hope that they will make the right choice, and kick the habit.
2. You show them tough love and do not enable them. You tell them once you are ready to change your life, I will be here to hold your hand and help you anyway I can, till then I will pray for you.
TPS and the Unions are the drug addict’s they are addicted to tax payer money, they have not shown that they are ready to change. (per Lawrence’s statement)
So do you give them money so they can, continue to avoid the realization that they have a problem? They have to hit bottom, I fear they are no where near bottom, an by giving them more money we only extend the pain, and that only hurts the children, those that are in TPS now and those that will be going through the broken system in years to come. Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. is not insanity, it is ignorance and apathy, something Toledo seems to have an overabundance.
This comment was posted on October 29th, 2010 at 10:26 amThe above post makes good points when it comes to dealing with drug addicts. However, we are not dealing with drug addicts we are dealing with kids in our community. Your post speaks to punishing TPS and the Unions (adults) by not giving them the resources they need to run the school district in an effort to force them to change their ways. In reality you are only hurting the children by forcing TPS to make cuts in some of the most vital areas of our school system. If you truly wish to “punish” TPS and the Unions than do not re-elect those that you feel are not effective and speak up and be a voice against whatever issues you feel the unions need to change in. In the movie Waiting for Superman a statistic is provided that compares the cost of educating a child vs incarcerating a child or adult for the same amount of time that they would have been getting an education. While I do not know the exact dollar amount for either side locally, I would be willing to bet it cost more to incarcerate an adult/child than it does to provide them an education. So ask yourself if punishing TPS and the Unions by saving money by voting down the levy is more important to you than paying a little extra now to give these kids the tools to make themselves productive members of society.
This comment was posted on October 29th, 2010 at 11:56 amBut see they are like Drug addicts. They are addicted to tax payer money. How is it that since the 1950′s we have spent more and more money on public education, yet our education ranking continues to decrease? I agree it would be more cost effective to educate children as oppose to incarcerate them, not to mention that it is the moral thing to do. Although if the parents were doing their job… the point is that spending more money is not a panacea, look at the schools in NJ and NY that spend over 10K per pupil and yet only half the kids even graduate. My point is that if we keep feeding the same broken system, what incentive is there to fix it? We are doing more damage to our children by trapping them in failing public schools! Is more money going to magically make the schools better? If we really wanted to improve the education system in NWO we would allow voucher’s ect and make the government funded schools compete, to EARN our tax dollars. The system is broke, you don’t fix a broke system by continuing to do the same thing… You don’t think that the kids are suffering now with education they are receiving?
This comment was posted on October 29th, 2010 at 2:11 pmWow am I glad I moved out of the City of Toledo.
This comment was posted on October 29th, 2010 at 9:01 pmScott – very important points made. Sure this all should be so much easier and the very unfortunate part is that children are in the middle. I watched TPS BOE Board President, Bob Vasquez on Bridges this past Sunday. He said 3 important things that raise real concerns. 1) He said alot of people in the community come to him and tell him of issues within TPS and then he admitted that the system has been in denial for a long time so that alone is not the fault of children. 2) He mentioned that a collegue on his community committe has told him that TPS must provide educational services at the same level or better but for 2/3rds the costs and 3) he admitted that there is currently no concrete plan to address these long standing issues – again not the fault of children.
I sincerely see why it is so much easier to leave the city of Toledo for greener pastures and many, many people have already taken that route – probably in order to help children.
This comment was posted on October 29th, 2010 at 10:59 pmStephen V: With what certitude is it established that we are not dealing with drug addicts? In the year 2010 all major corporations do mandatory testing on induction and continued random oversight at will. If as Mr. Kitson purports it is all about the children, when cab drivers, fork-lift operators, and virtually today all employment rests on a drug free condition why is there no examination for the instructors of our most precious and promising commodity our youth? The field of education at one point was a haven for those avoiding military service during a previous war. Are we unknowingly providing a safe harbor of refuse for individuals feeling superior to adhering to the rules?
This comment was posted on October 31st, 2010 at 9:15 amWell the people have spoken now.
We did not bend to the fear tactics.
A good begining would be vacating that building on Manhatten called the administration.
This comment was posted on November 3rd, 2010 at 11:03 am