Memories of my last presentation at the East Liverpool Area Community and Learning Center apparently have faded because my friend Mike Parkes asked me to do it again. “Do you have a subject in mind?” he asked. “I need a title for the list.” It took me only a few moments. “The ...
A school district’s budget has to cover a lot before the first student walks through the door. Teachers and support staff need to be hired, buses need fuel, and buildings need heat. When those costs rise, school boards have to make difficult choices about how to meet students’ needs with the dollars available. Health care can be one of the biggest variables in that equation. Districts need to provide dependable coverage for their employees, but an unexpected increase in costs can upend months of careful planning and leave less money available for classrooms. For a school board, ...
Despite repeated attempts by others to instill fear that Ohio’s elections are riddled with fraud, interference and illegal ballots cast, the public official best equipped to accurately assess the situation, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, has said, “voter fraud is rare in Ohio.” An analysis of data from the Ohio Crime Statistics Dashboard by the Ohio Capital Journal bears that out. Since taking office in 2019, LaRose has referred for investigation 1,200 voting/election-related cases. According to the crime statistics dashboard, only 16 resulted in felony convictions — ...
Refereeing isn’t supposed to be dangerous. But those who (often volunteer to) do so are increasingly facing dangers to their mental health and well-being AND their physical health while they are trying to do their jobs for our kids. During a Steubenville-New Philadelphia boys soccer game this week, an official was injured so badly he had to be hospitalized. Video evidence shows a Steubenville player who may have been reacting to a red card being given to a teammate charging at the official, knocking him to the ground. According to published reports, the referee suffered a collapsed ...
Having recently read a book about the Hatfields and McCoys, in my new capacity as an expert on this most famous of American family feuds I was invited to speak to a weekly breakfast meeting of the Weirton Rotary Club. The Rotarians were stunned (well, mildly curious) when I happened to ...
Lawmakers who never bothered to complete the phase-in of Ohio’s Fair School Funding Plan, or update data that could have helped more equitably fund the state’s public schools, are now also operating with the knowledge that their beloved EdChoice voucher program has been deemed unconstitutional by an appellate court. (Interim state Attorney General Andy Wilson has already said he plans to appeal that ruling to the 6-1 Republican majority Ohio Supreme Court.) If their consciences weren’t already being prodded by the knowledge that they abandoned fair school funding, and that an ...
