No TIFs No Abatments

Update August 20, 2007:
After attending the School Board meeting on abatement last week and talking with many area leaders and citizens I am reconsidering my ideas on this. I am exploring a new idea: If Harrison Township is doing a good job of restricting development to a narrow band near RT 16, clean commercial development in Pataskala may not be so bad. ONE CONDITION - The Schools have to benefit substantially if abatement is granted by the School Board.

Update January 23, 2007:
I have learned that my statement about going to 23 mils to solve the Districts TIF problem is wrong. See the above post: "SWL LSD Treasure Explains TIFS and Ohio School Funding" dated Tuesday, January 23, 2007.

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Dear Pataskala Standard Editor,

TIFs may work in depressed or impoverished areas to jump start economic development. But SWL doesn't need that. If we want quality development in SWL it is best to not to offer TIFs. It is best to have strong zoning and building codes that encourage stable high quality public and private entities to locate here. It is best to have high quality development or no development at all.

If a company locates here with an abatement they will leave if the abatement is not continued. The only way to replace them is to offer an abatement to another company to fill the vacancy.

School funding seems to drive our community to encourage any type of industrial and commercial economic development. These types of developments may relieve some of the burden on residential property owners. But I moved here knowing property taxes were a little higher and I can live with that in exchange for a nice community.

The taxpayers could remove the schools from this issue if we would just meet our States minimum 23 mill requirement and get off the 20 mill floor. We have suffered that 3 mill penalty too long.

Please encourage our leaders to stand strong and not offer abatments and TIFs to encourage unwanted development in SWL.

Justification for Teaching the 5 Major Religions

****> UPDATE 12-07-2006 : <**** See responses to letter at end of this post .

Please note the following SWL LSD bylaw 149.1 concerning the Board members' comments contained in this post:

"The Southwest Licking Local Board of Education, as a matter of policy, disclaims responsibility for any private publications by its members. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board or of the author's colleagues on the Board."

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Every activity in the public schools should be accountable to a Federal requirement, a State requirement, or local Board requirement. This gives a purpose for the activity. Every dollar spent on an activity should have a Federal, State, and local component. That is what accountability means. The following letter was written to my Board of Education and the middle school Principal. It addresses an activity that I think needs justification.

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Board members and WMS Principal,

My son's 6th grade Social Studies class is learning about the worlds five major religions. They include Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity.

Can you tell me what State requirement is met by teaching this subject?
Is there a local Board Policy that covers the teaching of this subject?
Is there any official purpose for teaching this subject?

What other purpose(s) is achieved in learning this subject?
Why do you believe this should be taught in public school?
Why do you believe it is age appropriate for 6th graders?

A written response would be most appreciated.

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Responses:

From Board Member Hayes:

Sorry for the delay. I've been trying to determine if your question is a 'board question' or if I should suggest you contact administration first. Based upon the manner in which it is put, I've come to the conclusion that it is a board question. However, to the extent there may be an issue related to the manner of presentation in class or a case-specific concern, these should follow the appropriate chain (teacher/principal/district administration) prior to being addressed by the board so as to avoid 'micro-management.'

You may have guessed that I don't have Ohio's standards, benchmarks, or factors memorized, but here's what I've found out:

This is a 6th grade standard being taught per Ohio Content Standards.

The standard is People in Societies - Students use knowledge of perspectives, practices and products of cultural, ethnic and social groups to analyze the impact of their commonality and diversity within local, national, regional and global settings.

The corresponding 6-8 benchmarks are as follows:

A. Compare cultural practices, products and perspectives of past civilizations in order to understand commonality and diversity of cultures.

B. Analyze examples of interactions between cultural groups and explain the factors that contribute to cooperation and conflict.

The grade 6 indicator is:

#2 - Compare world religions and belief systems focusing on geographic origins, founding leaders and teachings including: a) Buddhism; b) Christianity; c) Judaism; d) Hinduism; e) Islam.


Let me know if you'd like to discuss further.

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From Board Member Huber:

I notice that [Board memberHayes] has responded to several of your questions.

I will therefore only respond to the question, "Why do you believe this should be taught in public school?"

Briefly, I would answer that:

1) Religion(s) have played an important role in shaping human values, perspectives on life, etc. The ties with social and political events are numerous and ongoing. We simply cannot understand what has motivated large numbers of persons historically, or contemporaneously, without understanding something about their religious belief systems. (My personal definition of "religious belief systems" is rather broad-- in addition to the major "world religions" in the state curriculum for 6th graders, I would include also several "philosophical" systems that persons hold with "religious" fervor.)

2) The absence of this kind of information from a public school curriculum would constitute a kind of bias. Public schools should teach something about all major observable phenomena. Religion(s) certainly qualify in this regard. Of course, the teaching should be as objective as possible. This can include theological matters, but only in a descriptive way (e.g., regarding Islam -- "Islam teaches that God is One, and that Mohammed is his prophet.") There should be no bias toward religion or irreligion, insofar as is humanly possible.

3) Expanding on #1 a bit, I would note that the various expressions of religious belief often embody both the best and worst in human nature (I am assuming, of course, some core moral values that almost all people seem to have held throughout history). Religion has inspired people to be both altruistic toward, and destructive of, others. It is a powerful force that cannot be ignored, except at our peril.

I think your question about age-appropriateness is a good one, but I will defer to Dr. Miller-Smith in that matter.

One other note: The government in its many expressions has long recognized the validity of teaching rellgion phenomenologically in public universities. Some state schools even have religion departments. Many (most?) have chairs of religious studies within history, philosophy, English, and other departments. On the other hand, the Supreme Court in particular has been hesitant about teaching religion in K-12 because of the long history of religious groups trying to utilize this instruction for prosletyzing. Nonetheless, the Court has more than once opined that the objective teaching of religious phenomena (including the Christian Bible) in K-12 is acceptable. During the Clinton administration guidelines for doing this were issued by the DOE. I believe they are still in force and constitute the framework for Ohio curricular decisions in this matter.

I hope this is helpful.

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