Sparring over the CPS levy

Guest blogger Quan Truong reports:

The latest on the debate surrounding the Cincinnati Public School district’s appeal for a 9.95 mill levy:

The League of Women Voters held an issues forum at their monthly meeting Wednesday night.

Those who support the levy and those who do not, took the microphone and spoke frankly at the forum, in hopes of getting community members rallied on their side.

Mark Turner, an associate professor of Aerospace Enginnering at the University of Cincinnati, started the discussion by holding up his son’s math book. As a result of inflation, he said, the cost of everything, especially textbooks, have gone up significantly.

"My son is in the seventh grade – the district hasn’t had a levy since he was in kindergarten. That’s a long time," he said.

State Rep. Tom Brinkman argued the state has been extremely generous with educational funding.

"If this levy passes, it’ll cost $1,500 per student. There is not a single private school in Ohio that costs that much," he said.

Brinkman called the district dysfunctional and compared it to his children, saying "you take away their car keys and allowance til they get their act together."

Passing the levy, Brinkman said, would be supporting incompetence and he won’t support that until the district "gets its financial house together."

CPS Chief Operations Officer Tom Gunnell said he spoke at the forum not on behalf of the district but as a levy volunteer.

"The state report card would suggest otherwise," he said of Brinkman’s comments. "We’ve improved our performance for years – continual improvement. Is there room to grow? You bet there is and we’d like the opportunity to do that."

Turner said those who have doubts about the district’s performance should take a walk through the schools.

"Just look at the stats and go into any classroom. They’ll see for themselves."