The Governor has or had some great ideas for improving the quality of education in Ohio's schools. The state and the federal governments are cutting back on funding for our public education system, so those changes will not happen for our students.

Asking the tax payers for more money under the current system violates 4 Ohio Supreme Court decisions, so raising property taxes like we have done in the past can not happen.

There maybe some requests for cost cutting like teacher taking a percentage pay cut, undoing past contracts to negotiate new pricing for services these contracts supplies or finding new vendors. This will necessitate further burdens for parents to provide more school supplies for their children.

The issue concerning "Pay to Play" for sports and other extra curricular activties may become a reality. The school district that I residented in before moving to the "valley", Northeast of Columbus, Ohio had a $450 fee per child per sport, That would a crushing burden for many families in Barnesville. Maybe some kind of scholarship program with local businesses could be arranged, maybe even those people who are well off could sponsor some student athletes.

As with good leadership, we will have to do more with less, so any pay cuts or reductions should start at the superintendent office and then trickle down thru staff level personnel and finally to the level of the teachers.

Without teachers, there will be no one to teach the children of the school district, then administrators and staff members are no longer needed.

Jerry Smith, PhD.
Somerton, Ohio