7/18/2012 - West Side Leader
     

To the editor:

Thank you to the teachers and staff of Woodridge School District. The opportunities you provide are astounding and greatly appreciated. You deserve awards and praise, and should be supported by this community.

Teaching is radically different from years ago, and you show consistency in doing more with less while achieving excellence. Thank you!
 There are various opinions regarding public school funding. While our country thrives on freedom of opinion, existing laws state the requirements for public education and determine how it is funded. Expressing frustration with these laws by voting against school levies does not impact said laws. Two groups of people suffer when this happens: the children who lose educational opportunities and everyone else in a society composed of poorly educated individuals.

This situation carries with it a larger societal financial burden that ultimately cannot be ignored.
 Research shows that changes at the state level have negatively impacted the funding of public education on a dramatic scale. Meanwhile, the most recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report (bit.ly/ht1a9O), which compares the educational skills of 15-year-olds across 70 countries, shows the United States ranks 14th in reading skills, 17th in science and 25th in mathematics. With these statistics, how can we claim to be a great nation? How can we expect a great future? 


The cost of the Woodridge school levy is less than 60 cents a day per $100,000 of taxable property — a small price to pay for excellence. If the United States were to simply increase scores in each area highlighted in the PISA report by 25 points over the next 20 years, we would see “a gain of $41 trillion for the United States economy over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010.” Why would we want to cut education? Vote yes on Issue 5.

Scott Karlo, Woodridge Levy Committee co-chair, Cuyahoga Falls

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