So, those of you out of Ohio might wonder what the heck I'm talking about. Here in the Buckeye state, a proposal is placed on the ballot and the community votes on whether or not they should pay more money for the schools.
Today our community had a levy. I live in the same town I grew up in. I'm able to do this because I left Ohio for 7 years, experienced other parts of the country and world, and then returned to raise my children. I can't imagine a better place to raise children...besides Hawaii maybe. But that's for me. Summer all the time! I could handle that! =)
When we moved here I knew which suburbs to stay away from and which ones to pursue. We looked at a lot of houses in our "rival" suburb but my husband was partial to the town where I grew up (even though he is from Texas.)
So, we found a small cape cod on the edge of the suburb. When the housing market began to tumble we came across a steal of a deal in a neighborhood we could never afford under other circumstances. We pursued this house and somehow, it fell in our laps. We are currently renting out the other house until the housing market picks up again.
Anyway, I could tell that things had changed here some. The town had grown much older. It's such a great place to live that the old people die off instead of moving to a different suburb. In fact, a good portion of the folks on our street spend their winters in Florida or Hilton Head. Must be nice. Anyway, all of this to say, these "older" people are less prone to support the schools because they are past that stage of life. With the maturing of the suburb, the schools are changing too. The district is in a decline mode for the upper grades while the early elementary grades are on the upswing. That's a good sign but not in time to pass the school levy today. It wasn't an easy decision for my husband and I to vote FOR this. We have 2 houses in the suburb so that's a double whammy for us but honestly, we moved here FOR our kids. It's one major reason why we AREN'T in Texas. I'll vent on TX schools in another post but I was convinced that this move would be the best thing for our children.
The failure of this levy has me doubting this assumption. I know the economy is in no shape for a venture like this but I fear for the direction of this country and this suburb. In no way is our district in the shape of some in our area and for that I should be thankful but I can't even begin to imagine what this world will be like when my grandchildren are in school. We live in scary times.
Our levy passed in the fall, but it was still such an emotional whirlwind for me. I invested a lot of time in campaigning. Why should someone who doesn't even have kids in the system anymore decide whether or not my kids should have art??!! But, I also agree w/ the opposing view that more money thrown at a broken system doesn't fix the system. What I hate most about the levies is they are only a temporary solution. In just a few years from now I'll again be out on the street corners with my children and our signs and pom-poms convincing the community that we need field trips.
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