This Strikes Us …

A Sojourner’s Truth Editorial

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, being by his own description a sort of “glass-half-full” type of guy, issued a statement last week (see page 16) pledging his support to the once and future Toledo Public Schools Superintendent John Foley and taking the members of the Board of Education to task for unseemly displays of personal animosities and pettiness.

We cannot disagree with the mayor and his sentiments.

However, we must also note that very few people involved in the recent episode over the selection of the next superintendent covered themselves in glory. That includes the board, the critics of the board, the negotiators and William Harner, the first superintendent-select, himself. It was a travesty from beginning to end.

The mayor – he really is a “glass-half-full” type of guy – included in his statement the fact that Toledo was recently rated by an international magazine as a “city of the future.” And, ironically, as we pointed out last week, another such rating system placed the Toledo metropolitan area 26^th in the nation in the category of education among large cities – 26^th out of 379.

And, while that rating obviously includes those suburban areas that Harner became so enamored of during the 11^th hour of his negotiations, keep in mind the fact that the Toledo area is dominated – as are so few large metropolitan areas – by its core-city population and institutions.

In another section of this issue, we are going to take a look at the Early College High School, now in its second year of operation. Early College offers the opportunity to students from lower economic backgrounds to meet rigorous academic challenges and to get a leg up on the expense of attending college.

Early College is a result of the folks from TPS, and The University of Toledo, having a vision and making the commitment to carry that vision to fruition. These are the same folks at TPS – board and administration – who are so often maligned, and properly so at times, for a variety of reasons.

But, in the sturm und drang, the finger pointing and the pettiness over the Harner debacle, one thing emerges as it always does here in Toledo during discussion about the school district. We never talk about children; we never talk about our students.

We always limit the discussions to who did what when and who should have been allowed to do what was done.

Every criticism of the school system seems to revolve around the issue of who is in control of the decision-making process. Should the board make decisions? How much input should citizens have in the process? And which citizens?

It’s election time. This year two of the five school board seats – those occupied by President Deborah Barnett and long-time member Larry Sykes – are up for grabs. As a community, we have to be extremely careful in pressing candidates for those seats to speak to us about education and our children’s needs. Too often, they are going to move into side issues such as community involvement.

One such candidate is already on the hustings touting a plan of fiscal responsibility and community involvement while giving lip service – in a phrase of about seven or eight words – to improving academic performance and making schools better.

If we can’t entice school board candidates to speak in depth about what they would do to actually make our schools better, we are going to end up with the same divisive personality issues that dominate board politics today.

We just did a little research on discussions we had with candidates in prior races for the school board. Things that a candidate says during a campaign for such a position are often reflective of how that person will conduct himself or herself while in office. If a candidate does not have a plan for improving schools, one can bet that the office holder will pay scant attention to such notions after winning the election.

As of now, four individuals have declared themselves to be candidates for the school board. The deadline for application is August 23 and the sense here is that at least another four will enter the race.

It’s going to be an expensive, contentious campaign. Candidates are going to say some really silly things about issues of little importance, especially when compared to the significant issue of academic excellence and how to get this district there in the shortest amount of time.

Voters have to focus like a laser on that issue and that issue only this time around. If we get too involved in all of these periphery issues, we are going to be asking for more fiascos such as the one we just witnessed.

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