What He Really Said

Published October 29, 2016 in the Akron Beacon Journal

While I have learned to ignore the flood of negative campaign mailers, I received one from the Ohio Republican Party that seemed truly bizarre. It claimed that Casey Weinstein, candidate for state representative in the 37th District, opposed education funding.

It used a quote from the candidate’s website that said, “Our state wasted $1 billion of taxpayer money.” I could not believe that a candidate for either party would oppose education spending. I looked on Weinstein’s website, and the full quote was, “Our state wasted $1 billion of taxpayer money on unaccountable charter schools and I find this to be unacceptable.”

I completely agree with Weinstein’s assessment. Reports have come out for years that Ohio has the worst charter schools in the nation, with minimal oversight leading to lower graduation rates and educational attainment than the “failing” public schools that they are supposed to replace.

The architects of this waste of taxpayer money, among them the 37th District incumbent Kristina Roegner, are now claiming that they are the ones to fix the system.

While my school district of Hudson does not have that many students enrolled in charter schools, we can still lose substantial funds.

We must demand that candidates tell us their role in creating this $1 billion a year waste of money and what they are going to do about holding charter schools accountable. The Ohio Republican Party should understand that being opposed to wasteful charter school spending does not equate to being opposed to education spending.

James Field, Hudson