Recent Issues Impact Education

First, I want to apologize for the lack of posts this week. Things have been pretty crazy here the last week or two. For anyone waiting for the third part of the model of church sermon, look for it to be up sometime early next week.

There are two issues that I would like to touch on, both of which would have been their own posts any other week. The first is the TEL amendment and the second is the push for legalized gambling in Ohio. Both of these issues have a common thread—they will directly impact our educational system.

The TEL amendment, short for Tax Expenditure Limitation, was an issue that would have been placed on the fall ballot. Both parties have sought to gain political leverage from the issue, which in its original form would limit all government spending within the state. However, the implications this act would have on local government and school systems were not considered.

When the problems with the issue were raised by advocacy groups, the state’s legislature passed their own version of the bill, which fixed the problem of local governments and schools. While the issue should be dead, there is still some uncertainty as to the fate of the ballot issue and if it can be repealed.


The other issue that caught my attention this week was the push for legalizing gambling in Ohio. While this has been a hotly debated topic for years, the issue has always been pretty clear. The benefits that legalized gambling brings are offset by the increase in crime and the social impact.

What I find sickening is that one of the selling points for legalizing more vegas-style gambling is that a percentage of the profits go to help fund education. That is what they also said about the Ohio lottery. While it is true that the Ohio lottery gives a percentage of their proceeds to education, the government then took an equal amount back out so that it could be used elsewhere. This is not new funding, but reshuffling the deck. The negatives that surround this issue make it a pretty easy decision. Gambling is not the path to the future in Ohio.

For more information on these stories, see the links below:

TEL and Schools

TEL and local government

TEL and politics

gambling editorial

gambling story