Here’s why I’m voting for the CH-UH school levy in November:
1. Strong communities have strong schools.
It doesn’t matter whether you send your children to public school or not – or whether you have children at all. When the community’s schools thrive, so does the community itself. New families move in, which helps local businesses to profit while supporting the tax base and home values.
It doesn’t even matter whether the schools are excellent; just by passing levies, our community sends the message that this is a good place for families and a stable place to make an investment in a home.
2. Passing levies makes the schools better.
The schools have, very simply, been managed better and have improved since the last levy was passed. Before that, over an extended period when levies regularly failed here, they had, very simply, gotten worse. That’s not a coincidence.
The most recent levy didn’t pass until the community demonstrated, by replacing members of the school board, that we were tired of mediocre management. It’s the same effect as when you visit a store; if the merchandise is neat and orderly, shoppers tend to treat it better too. But if it’s unkempt and strewn about, they tend to treat it poorly.
When we pass levies, we’re telling the school employees – from superintendent to janitors – that we care, and as a result they treat the schools, the children and our money with more regard.
3. The current school administration has earned our continued investment.
Since becoming superintendent two years ago, Douglas Heuer has overseen a number of improvements. He has:
- Lengthened the school day.
- Increased after-hours opportunities for kids who need academic help.
- Restructured the small schools model operating at Heights to make it more effective.
- Introduced block scheduling at the middle schools – probably the district’s weakest link over the years – to improve standardized test scores in core subjects. (Kids get double periods to spend more time on things like math and reading.) The pilot program for this took place in the 2010-2011 academic year at Wiley Middle School, and resulted in large improvements in reading, science and math scores. It has now been implemented at the other middle schools as well.
- Teachers are being encouraged to improve their own skills and to stay updated in their understanding of the evolving science of education.
- While all that has been going on, the board has cut more than $6 million in expenses from the operating budget without cutting into the thing we’re all willing to pay for: education of children. These cuts have allowed the last levy to be stretched for four years – 25% longer than most levies are expected to last.
4. Fair is fair.
The public school district gives all kids, from all backgrounds, a chance to get a quality education. While plenty of people in the community choose to send their children to private schools, the CH-UH district guarantees that those who can’t afford private schools also have a chance to go to college or otherwise become productive members of the community as they grow up.
The public schools also serve everyone – including the many kids who, for a variety of reasons, would be rejected or expelled from private schools.
For instance, the most consistent complaint I hear about our schools is the threatening and embarrassing appearance of the groups of kids who hang out at Cedar and Lee after high school lets out each day. If the levy fails, the worst of those kids aren’t going to go away. Those who are most at-risk aren’t going to be accepted at any of the private schools – even if they could pay for it. And remember that for every kid hanging out on the street, there are a handful of others who remain on school grounds to practice football or singing or some other activity supported by the schools. If the levy fails, there will be more kids hanging out in the wrong place – not fewer.
5. In some ways, our schools are already exceptional.
Our public schools provide a few things that are becoming increasingly rare, such as strong music education and sports programs that are affordable for everyone. I know several families that have chosen CH-UH schools specifically because their children couldn’t get equivalent experiences at even the most expensive private schools. A family friend who graduatedlast year has earned a full-ride to college to study music – based on his experience at Heights.
Are sports and music important? Well, yes, if you think society benefits from having people who know what it means to be part of a high-performing team.
It’s true that the district’s state report card has not made miraculous leaps toward “Academic Excellence.” But with the usual ups and downs it has made consistent progress – going up each year more than it goes down.
6. Levies fight the worst effects of poverty.
All of this is happening as poverty in the district continues to increase. If that poverty troubles you – or scares you – that’s OK. Me too. But don’t punish the public school district over it. The schools don’t create the punks and criminals that run around the Heights. Actually, the schools mitigate their impact, by helping many kids who might otherwise become punks and criminals to play a more constructive role in the community.
7. Finally, accountability.
The district has worked to increase transparency within the community; if you’re paying attention, it’s now easy to know the priorities and progress that it’s making. If you’re not paying attention, that’s your prerogative – but then you’d be wrong to make the same assumptions you might have made five or six years ago, when the district was not so well managed.
These are hard times, and coming up with extra money isn’t easy. After being laid off nearly three years ago, I’ve changed careers and managed to keep most of the bills paid, but I’m not exactly floating in spare cash.
But the last two district administrations have worked very seriously to:
- provide our community with more education for the dollar;
- provide increased accountability and transparency;
- improve the metrics by which our schools are measured;
- respect the funding we provide, and use the money with increasing efficiency.
I believe they have done a good job in very difficult times. I’ve looked at the budget, and while people may choose to argue with specific spending decisions, I believe that the spending is both judicious and purposeful.
I’d like to see our commuity build a little positive momentum, which will make Cleveland Heights and Universty Heights a more attractive place to live.
To me, it’s all worth paying a little extra.
I will disclose that I have one child still in the school district, and he’s thriving. I have two others who just graduated and are successfully navigating their freshman year of college – each at a prestigious university. OK, so call it 8 reasons why I’m voting for the levy.
I’d like to address your points; I think you are dead wrong. Passing another levy will harm this community irreparably.
1. Though I am in favor of strong excellent schools, I believe they do not have to cost us the highest taxes in the state of Ohio. In fact, we don’t have excellent schools despite paying the highest taxes (overall, property plus income tax)! We have among the worst suburban districts in the state. We consistently rank in the lowest range of achievement. We have schools STILL on “academic watch”. The more money we throw at this, the worse our schools get!
Also: many very desirable areas in the US with affluent residents do NOT have good school systems. Desirability is a matrix of a lot of things — jobs, climate, “hipness”, friends, family — and not just schools.
2. Passing levies has made both our schools and communities measurably worse. Why? Because they are now both bloated and SPOILED: the schools (and all-powerful teacher union) knows we are “suckers” here in the Heights. They also use racism and fears of “turning into East Cleveland” (code word for racism) to terrorize us into handing over as much money as they demand each levy cycle.
No levy has ever failed in the Heights; why? Because the school system has unlimited power to keep putting levies on the ballot until they pass. And when we keep telling school officials (who continue to waste our tax dollars and produce sub-standard results) that they will continue to be rewarded for failure, we continue to get failure.
3. The current school administration is “business as usual”. We still have the shortest school day in the region! They only increased it by a few minutes, and did that by shortening time between classes — the union stood in the way of working even a measly 6 hour day.
The small school initiative has been abandoned as a proven failure by EVERYONE, even the Gates Foundation that once funded it. We continue to be the laughing stock among school districts, because we cave in to every fad, and waste money chasing ridiculous “new fangled” programs instead of proven, traditional teaching methods.
4. Kids do NOT get a quality education in the Heights but a substandard one, even by third world standards. Only affluent white children (*at Roxboro) get a decent education, but the black-majority schools get a very poor education. Some black majority schools are still on Academic Watch or “Continuing Failure” while the only school with affluent kids is “Excellent with Distinction” (better than Beachwood, the highest income district in the state). Huh, imagine that! Just look at our local school motto: “Every day, SOME success, SOME way” — a guarantee of low standards and failure!
The public schools certainly do not serve the growing number of Heights families who send their children to private or parochial school, or who homeschool — all because the Heights schools are a proven failure, and bottomless hole of greed for more and more tax money.
Note: as far as “groups of kids hanging out” — we could solve this by using truant officers plus a policy of checking home addresses, to remove children who are not legally eligible to attend our schools. Children attending from out of district are epidemic here — and who else would come to CHUH for an “education” (ha!) but kids from WORSE districts like Cleveland and East Cleveland? We are importing “Trouble”. The levy will not address that, since it does not budget for things like truant officers or reform schools or removing out-of-district kids.
5. Our schools are NOT exceptional, except for failure. We are the laughing-stock of NE Ohio education. We’ve been losing population for this cause for decades; we are now below 50,000 residents! We lost 10% of population in that time. Mr. Rosenbaum, do you EVER talk to people who are MOVING OUT of the Heights? I DO. They complain first of all about our outrageous tax rates, which rob them of income to live and raise their families. Then about our horrible disaster of a school system. Will you be happy until EVERY middle class family (of any race) leaves????
6. High taxes ensure poverty and poor schools. Communities with high taxes are either already poor, or headed that way. High taxes drive out the best, hardest working middle class and affluent families. The best school districts, provably, have the lowest taxes — Beachwood, Rocky River, Mayfield Heights, etc.
Yes, the schools do create “punks” — by failing to educate our children and failing to implement strict standards about things like behavior, failure to show up at school, out of district kids, etc.
7. I am paying attention, that’s how I know that our district is HUGE FAILURE and has standards in the toilet (*4 hour, 45 minute school day that somehow nobody knew about?). School officials are corrupt. They only care about their huge salaries (double dippers?) and union benefits, like early retirement and free gold-plated health care for life.
8. Thinking you can create a stable, desirable residential community (with a strong anti-business bias) by simply having the highest tax rates in the state, has been a proven path of failure for Cleveland Heights. Is it possible that it is time to TRY A NEW PATH? Like fair taxation at reasonable rates, like other communities with good schools? We should model our schools and taxation on those communities who are THRIVING, not continue to implement known paths to failure!!!!!
9. Your child is “thriving” because you are A. affluent and B. white, and he probably attended Roxboro, or you live in Roxboro (or Fairfax). I’ll bet you’ve never even DRIVEN THROUGH the part of Cleveland Heights that I have to live in!!!!!
Laurel, your response contains many inaccuracies. Rather that point them out one by one, I’d rather cover some new ground that your comment raised.
I will readily agree that Cleveland Heights is very much divided, with one side being far better off than the other.
The schools reflect this truth – but they did not cause it.
The worst problems that this city and its schools face with respect to the cost of living are twofold:
1) Age of infrastructure: It costs much, much more to manage water, sewer, street, facility and school systems that are 100+ years old than those that are 40, 30 or 20 years old. To choose life in an inner ring suburb is to accept the higher income and property taxes that result from that truth.
2) Poverty: Simply put, it’s expensive being poor. Google that very phrase and you’ll get all the evidence you need. We can rage at that fact all we want. But it means that poor people, and communities with high levels of poverty such as ours, spend more to get the same as others in areas with more wealth and abundance.
How is that reflected in our schools? They must figure out how to educate many people who are disadvantaged. People who come into our school system in the middle of their school years without anything close to grade-level skills. People who bring down the state report card and make the schools look as if they’re failing when, for many, they are actually doing a heroic job.
In addition, our schools must pay for the special education of every disabled, troubled and challenged child that shows up. It’s the law, because our society has chosen to fund education for everyone. We pay for that by funding our schools. And there are more of these kids among the poor than among the wealthy for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with schools (drug and alcohol use among young teen parents, lack of access to prenatal and postnatal care for the poor, nutrition among the poor, etc.).
The schools don’t create this reality, but they have the cost burden of dealing with it.
You’re absolutely right that my well-nourished, healthy, centered and supervised children have done better in school than a large percent of their classmates. If the schools were filled with kids like mine, guess what: We WOULD be spending less per pupil and the district WOULD have a great state report card.
The point is that the district isn’t failing the children; my kids’ success demonstrates that.
The point is that many children are failing the district. But who pays for that? We do, through declining perception of the community and the ensuing loss in property values.
How do we fight it? My approach is that, if I choose to live here, I’m going to work to support every element of this community: its organizations, its businesses and its schools. To do otherwise is to give up, making it less likely – not more – that you would ever be able to sell your home and move.
Cleveland Heights happens to be located adjacent to some of the poorest, most blighted communities in the region, which means that it’s the place that many poor people aspire to move up to – something that cannot be said of the school systems in your own example – Beachwood, Mayfield and Rocky River.
The people you cite who are leaving have decided not to live with these realities. That’s their choice and it’s certainly true that you can find other communities that DON’T force these realities upon their residents.
But to suggest that Beachwood or Mayfield or Rocky River offer very different school experiences and cost structures because they spend less money per pupil is simply wrong.
It confuses a correlation with the concept of cause-and-effect.
They are able to achieve more with less money because they are very different places with very different histories, infrastructures and realities. (I believe they also all have passed more levies in the past 20 years than we have.)
Your diatribe against the schools strikes me as misplaced. Your diatribe is really against the effects of poverty. However, since poverty is defined as a severe shortage of money, I don’t understand how taking away more money will fix it.
I agree that there is plenty to be troubled about in our city and our schools.
But where you see abject failure, I see the beginnings of real reform and real progress, the likes of which we both want to see.
It will take longer to solidify and multiply these gains than the 3-year period that a school levy typically lasts in the state of Ohio.
It took Moses 40 years before his people were ready to enter the Promised Land. Reshaping our schools into something we’re all proud of is a project that will take a generation.
Longer if we refuse to fund it.
Laurel facts are not inaccurate. In short: The district is NOT an Academic Watch. In fact we have the second highest ranking in the State when compared to what the State classifies us as “like” districts. Roxboro was ranked at Excellent with Distinction, and is NOT ‘white’ and ‘affluent’. Over 50% of the students attending Roxboro are at or below poverty levels. Our School District Treasurer has won numerous awards by the State for being Fiscally Responsible. The argument the stave school districts by cutting their funds, I cannot see how that helps our kids or our community. Complaining about our tax base the tax burden for homeowners versus businesses, to me is as ridiculous as those people who intentionally buy a house near an airport – then complain about all the noise those airplanes make. Bottom line, we love living in the Heights. And, our kids and their peers are getting a great education in the Heights schools.