April 25, 2000

The (Youngstown, Ohio) Vindicator

EDITOR:

Instead of attacking our area superintendents and parents, perhaps The Vindicator would do itself and our communities some good by following their own advice. Don't "kill the messenger," they write -- just before attacking our community messengers.

The Ohio proficiency tests, as they are currently composed, do present some problems. Those problems need addressed. The tests aren't the only problem, though, or even the main one.

The main problem in Ohio's education system has been the 10-ton elephant sitting in our state's living room for more than a decade. Ohio's legislators -- and Ohio's newspapers -- need to face up to the undeniable fact that our students will not pass the 'standards' movement' until after our General Assembly passes a new and sensible system for funding our schools.

Our state and our students are not being held back by the proficiency tests.

They are being held back by a legislature unwilling to obey the Ohio Supreme Court's order to fix our system for funding schools. To say that "poor school districts are not rising to the challenge" of inner-city schooling is uninformed, misleading and plays on our worst stereotypes. It is the legislature's refusal to fix a broken funding system that continues to plague our inner-city schools -- not "the anti-test chorus."

Ohio's judicial branch and our educators have made the call to fix the school funding system. The General Assembly has thus far ignored this call. Now it appears as if The Vindicator, as well, is sweeping the 10-ton elephant under the rug.

CHRIS GEIDNER

Liberty Township

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