Levy Passage

The Middletown School levy failed yesterday after it was defeated in May.

Question, how is that when you voted against something just three months ago it gets back on a special election?

It seems to me when you vote against something it should take at least a year before that same issue comes up again.

If the public schools want the "public" to be more sensitive to their funding, they need to do a few things first.

1) Start a tax exempt, non profit organization for the purposes of funding a particular area of the school (ie extracurriculars, libraries, etc.) and aggressively seek funding from corporate and individual donors.

2) Do festivals just like the Catholic Schools, complete with booze and gambling. Not only are these fund raisers, they allow people like myself to actually go into the schools and see their condition. It actually makes the school a more personal asset.

3) Aggressively use the schools for neighborhood activities. I was heavily involved in a community group some years ago and one evening we need a room the size of a classroom for one of our meetings. Could we have it in a public school? We couldn't even get a return call from a principal. We had the meeting at the local Catholic school. Who do you think is more in the public favor after that?

4) Set up community repair days for the schools, just like a Habitat for Humanity project. Call on local churches and community groups to go into the schools and paint or make minor repairs.

5) Set up a parent oversight committee (and subsequent representation on a school board) to go over budgets and recommend changes in the way school money is spent.

As a taxpayer with no school age children, here's the information I get regarding the local public schools.

1) You're not welcome here.
2) We're the professionals..... you pay us to do all this.
3) Our students are ding dongs with lots of self esteem.

In essence, here is the contract public school officials want with voters........ Give us more money and, in return, we'll give you no accountability and we'll keep delivering dumb students.

I can't imagine why people don't line up for that deal.