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Herman column unfair picture of levy

DEAR EDITOR:

Andrew Herman’s recent column – “.some reasons to vote yes” – is so full of bologna that let’s begin with his contention that they haven’t kicked God out of our public schools. What a crock! A junior high school student in another state was recently yanked out of his chair by the teacher monitoring the cafeteria that day for the crime of … saying a silent prayer of thanks before beginning to eat his lunch. I could see the same thing happening here in the Mahoning Valley. Public school students are discouraged from even mentioning the word “God” in class. And then there’s the constant practice in public schools and public universities whereby students are taught that the theories of the “big bang” and evolution are facts, when in fact they are nothing more than the beliefs of atheists who refuse to even consider the belief / theory of intelligent design. Mr. Herman’s out-of-context biblical quotations infer that he thinks if school officials say they need more money, we should just knuckle under and give it to them, like dumb sheep to the slaughter.

His criticisms of charter schools miss the larger point: that millions of parents in America have no confidence their children will receive a good education in a safe environment in public schools, not to mention their disgust with the secular, anti-Christian values that permeate public “education” in America in recent decades. The claim that charter schools are all about Wall Streeters making big bucks would be laughable except it sadly exposes Herman’s economic illiteracy: the Wall Street guys spend their time researching and investing in big businesses which pay reliable dividends, not in the little money with scant profits of charter schools.

Finally, there’s the question of why Mr. Herman would write a column pushing voters – especially in Howland – to vote for the additional “emergency” school levy. As Tribune readers on Oct. 27 could see, Howland Local School District received almost $8 million (!) from state taxpayers last school year, while Liberty and Champion – which are just slightly smaller than Howland – only received $677,948 and $228,454, respectively. So Howland got eleven times as much as Liberty and 33 times (!) as much as Champion … but they want more! What unmitigated gall and greed. Everyone should know by now that tax increases generally do nothing more than grow government and spoil government employees even more than they already are. Did Andrew Herman choose to teach at Howland because he could cash in more there?

James Dunlap

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