October 18, 2006

Call to Renewal of Summit County Sponsored Press Conference
Position Statement

Akron School Levy – Issue 6

My name is Rev. Gretchen Green, a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio and Co Chair with Rev. Kovach of an ecumenical gathering of clergy and laity known as The Call to Renewal of Summit County. Today I stand representing The Call to Renewal and its unanimous decision at our September meeting to endorse the Akron School Levy currently on the November Ballot as Issue 6.

As citizens and concerned clergy we have studied the issue of school funding over several years. We endorsed the levy last Spring which was defeated by a tiny margin and again we are committed to exercising our voice as advocates based on the following 8 principles which we understand as people of faith to be foundational to the common good:

1. Commitment to the fulfillment of every child’s God-given potential. We believe education is key to the ability of persons to participate positively as contributing members of society. The Akron schools have been showing steady improvement and have moved up 2 notches-we need to keep the momentum going.
2. Human Dignity. All students have the right to be treated with dignity. There have been great strides made by our schools in both addressing and meeting the needs of children.
3. Safe & Caring Schools. We can all relate to this need as we read of violence and even death in some of our country’s schools. We need to send a message of hope to our children and youth, “You are important. We care for you. You will have good teachers, adequate supplies and books, programs that delight and encourage your curiosity and develop your talents.” Money from the levy goes right to student services: teaching and programs that equip children for higher education.
4. The Common Good. The whole of society benefits from the insistence on excellence in education. For those in the urban core, it is much more difficult to achieve for multiple reasons the most obvious of which is the high incidence of city children living in poverty. I understand that today in Akron, all children in elementary school participate in the free lunch program because there are so few who do not qualify that it is cheaper and more efficient to just give it to everyone.
5. Commitment to end racism. As people of faith, we see racism as a sin against God and our brothers and sisters. One of the places where the inequities of race in our society seem to get played out vividly is in the schools where the dynamics of segregation prevail in the funding of education through property taxes, thus connected to inequities in housing opportunities.
6. Participation of all people at all levels. For good, effective schools all segments of society need to be in partnership: the family, the school, community, businesses and the various faith communities. It does indeed, “take a village to raise a child.”
7. Adequate funding of public schools. The State of Ohio has chosen to fund schools through local property taxes. While our Supreme Court has found this system to be unconstitutional 4 times over, it has not changed in the years since the DeRolph decision. We desperately need reform for school funding but the children cannot wait. Those who were in kindergarten when the first court decision was handed down are graduating seniors now if they stayed in school. Those who chose to leave before graduation are in the catch 22 of either dependence on the society, a life of crime, jail, a dead end job at an inadequate living wage or the anxiety of trying to catch up while stuck in one of those other places.
8. Accountability as a stewardship principle. All those in policy-making positions have a responsibility to be good stewards of community resources. The Akron schools, under the leadership of Dr. Sylvester Small and his staff, and the tough decisions made by the school board, presided over by Rev Dr. Curtis Walker, both of whom are here today, have indeed met or exceeded every goal in the 2001 contract with the community. The schools have trimmed $40 million from their budget and kept annual spending growth under 3%. It is a much leaner district. They have kept their promises to the community. Now, the community needs to support those efforts and move forward.

We come together today to stand for these principles as they relate to the children of Akron who, as I said earlier, cannot wait for us to sort out our differences their futures are being shaped now.