Pilfering of Public Schools
This is what our state government wants.
Sweet Jesus it’s Michigan Week and the attorney general from that state up north has already dawg checked our brain genius attorney general Dave Yost into the bottom of Lake Erie:
Of course our friend Yost had to defer to his boss who totally has a plan to “mitigate” the chemical runoff that is ruining Lake Erie and poisoning Cleveland’s drinking water:
It would suck to lose to Michigan though frankly if we’re talking about consolidation prizes we probably couldn’t do better than regulating the runoff that’s destroying our Great Lake.
I figured going from an avoid #NeverTrumper to taking selfies in the Port-a-Pot lines of Deals’ inauguration would be the most humiliating thing to ever happen in the charmed life of the guy who somehow earning a promotion after giving an accounting award to the architects of the largest charter school scandal in state history. But singing Hail to the Victors in the Shoe is sacrilege and Yost should be embarrassed for even putting it on the table.
Anyway here we go with another day in Ohio baby the state with Buckeye Brain Disease that is even rotting the brains of corporations like Chipotle who are engaging in our absolute psycho behavior of crossing out the letter M for an entire week.
I hate everything about this meme.
I don’t respect Michigan’s football program enough to rip the “M” off every keyboard I own.
All those clowns have to talk about is U.S. News and World Report university rankings like we’re here to watch a bunch of nerds take a chemistry test. Once that bullet is out of the chamber they will immediately accuse you of sucking other men’s cocks which is always the sign of a sexually secure dude who has tons of sex with women and not of a guy who spends a lot of time feeling ashamed for feeling tingly after thinking about sucking men’s cocks. It’s 2019 bro nobody cares about that shit anymore.
I can’t wait to humiliate them Saturday and go back to not thinking about them for another 51 weeks until next year when I laugh to myself and say oh my God Michigan is still trying to play football for some reason.
VOUCHER SCAM WORKING AS INTENDED
Ohio Republicans fundamentally as a party do not support public education. They would much rather funnel children into the kinds of schools that can legally teach students that men have more ribs than women and abortion is murder.
Here’s just one example from Householder’s latest propaganda outfit:
Ohio’s education rankings have plummeted in recent years because voucher programs have drained public schools of millions of dollars and then the state expecs those systems to do more with less.
The problem is only getting worse, too.
From Stephen Dyer of 10thperiod.blogspot.com:
How fast? Try a $47 million jump from last year to this year. Ohio school districts now lose $330 million to vouchers that pay for students to attend private, mostly religious schools. And the school year isn't even halfway complete. Another enrollment period happens after Jan. 1. So we may be looking at $350 million lost to vouchers by the end of this school year.
And this is just the voucher deduction. There a whole other explosion going on in the EdChoice income-based voucher program, but since it's not a pass-through deduction from school districts, it will be more difficult to track.
Despite that, some districts have been absolutely devastated by these increases. Take Scioto Valley Local in Pike County. Two years ago, they lost zero students to vouchers. Last year, they lost $9,720 to vouchers. This year? $103,600.
That's $100,000 that Scioto Valley had coming from the state two years ago that they no longer have. That's a lot of money to Scioto Valley. They only raise $148,000 for every voted mill they put on the ballot.
To make matters worse the state then issues “Report Cards” to school districts with a grading system totally unfair to poor city and rural districts. These results are then uncritically parroted by local media every year and more and more overworked parents are seeing headlines about “failing local schools” who then decide it’s best to take Little Johnny to either a computer school ran by cybercriminals or the local religious institution that thinks the Earth is 6,000 years old.
When Republicans call me ignorant my first thought is “You’re lucky I had a decent public education that I took seriously until the 10th grade otherwise you really wouldn’t like me.” But maybe not considering I’d be dumb enough to get tricked into becoming racist by watching YouTube videos instead of doing my homework.
Either way I am always grateful for public school education. But if I had a kid there is no way I would let them be educated in this state. By and large our state government does not respect education because the last thing they want on their hands is a bunch of critical thinkers.
SCAM ARTISTS CHANGE THEIR NAME
If a criminal avoids arrest in the immediate aftermath of a crime, sometimes they will move to another state under an assumed identity.
In Ohio our corporate criminals operate in broad daylight because they’re in cahoots with lawmakers. But they still understand the power of a name which is why First Energy Solutions — a month after securing a bailout from House Speaker Larry Housholder and his cronies — have decided to change their name.
From Alan Ashworth of beaconjournal.com:
The chief executive officer of FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. said Monday the company will change its name and keep its headquarters in Akron after it emerges from bankruptcy later this year.
John Judge, who leads the former unit of FirstEnergy Corp., said his company will be privately held and renamed as Energy Harbor.
“Akron has been our corporate home for more than 20 years,” a company spokesman said. “Although we had options as to where our headquarters would be located, our decision to remain in Akron reflects our commitment to our employees, the city, and the state of Ohio.”
When it emerges from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process that began in early April 2018, the company will have about 2,800 employees.
I’ll be curious to see what happens to “FirstEnergy Stadium” which every boot-licking journalist calls Cleveland Browns Stadium like they’re getting cut a check as well.
GOD DAMNIT, FORMER COTA SECRETARY
Whenever I’m talking to someone who says “Unions had their time as short as it was but then they all got corrupt and they’re bad now” I always remind them that unions are like any other democratic institution in that they’re only as strong as the rank-and-file’s vigilance in electing honorable leaders.
Few things piss me off more in life than seeing someone elected to a position of power in a union and then soiling the labor movement by swindling their co-workers out of their hard-earned money.
Charges have yet to be filed but it’s not looking good for a former COTA treasurer.
From Mark Ferenchek of dispatch.com:
The secretary-treasurer of the local union representing Central Ohio Transit Authority bus drivers and maintenance workers has resigned after union leaders discovered about $300,000 missing from the local.
Columbus police are investigating the matter. In the meantime, the Transport Workers Union of America has placed Local 208 in receivership pending an investigation into what happened.
“There is no place in the TWU for officials who abuse their power and the trust of the membership,” TWU International President John Samuelsen said in a prepared statement. “We have zero tolerance for this type of behavior and for the lack of proper oversight and enforcement at the local union level. We are absolutely shocked, angered and disgusted by these charges of deception and criminality. The hardworking men and women who move Columbus, and are members of TWU Local 208, put their trust in this individual.”
The Dispatch is not identifying the former secretary-treasurer as no criminal charges had been filed as of Monday afternoon, police said.
Embezzlement is a helluva drug. This person probably got away with taking a few thousand dollars to pay-off a credit card bill and thought “Damn that was easy.”
So easy this person stole 300K and still went into work like it was a normal day at the office. IT’s all fun and games until the police are knocking on your door.
OH HELL YEAH: SMALL-TOWN TRUSTEE DRAMA
Headlines were made last year when a bunch of developers planted a story with local press about their desire to build “Planet Oasis” a $2 billion boondoggle on Route 36/37 and Interstate 71 that basically amounted to something a teenager would build after inheriting $10 billion from their coal baron father who died in the hands of his mistress after accidentally ingesting a lethal amount of Viagra.
I know a guy who was an engineer who looked at the designs and said it would take over a decade to complete and would never happen. Turns out he was right as an anti-Oasis Township Trustee in Berskhire Ohio is consolidating power.
From Dean Narciso of dispatch.com:
When voters in Delaware County’s Berkshire Township voted down a property tax levy and bond package for new parks, they sent a powerful message that has taken a toll on local officials.
With the Nov. 5 defeat, by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, a longtime trustee also was voted out of office, the township administrator quit and a new parks director position was effectively abandoned.
And now, allegations of a hostile workplace are being investigated.
Former Berkshire administrator Jeff George, who resigned Nov. 14, after 11 years with the township, cited an “intolerable, threatening, belittling and abusive work environment.”
As administrator, George took direction from three trustees. But he accused one — Rod Myers — of fostering conflict. And in his resignation letter, he included transcripts of voicemail messages Myers sent him this fall as evidence.
In one, Myers accuses George of insubordination for not attending a meeting, stating that he is George’s boss and demanding he show respect or, “I tell ya Jeff, I’ll make the whole next 2-3 months miserable.”
This guy wants office or medical complexes that will “lower residents’ tax threshold.” Whatever they decide to do it’s clear the days of using 36/37 as a backdoor slide-through when traveling from Marion to Columbus are over.
88-YEAR-OLD MAN DAWG CHECKS PIT BULL ATTACKING GIRL
There are no bad dogs only assholes too lazy to properly train their dogs. That said I’ve seen a pit bull in kill mode and it’s something I’d gladly wish on my worst enemy.
Shoutout to this 88-year-old boss who used something called a nutcracker pole to save a little girl’s life.
From Samantha Ickes of insideoneline.com:
MASSILLON — Leonard Miller was in his kitchen when he heard a frantic knocking at the door and the sound of a little girl screaming for help.
The 13-year-old girl told her neighbor their dog was attacking her younger sister and would not let her go. Miller didn’t think. He reacted.
The following minutes were a blur as he rushed to the next-door home in Stark County’s Perry Township in northeast Ohio.
Thinking back, the 88-year-old wishes he would have grabbed his baseball bat before heading into the home. He didn’t want to be without a weapon, so he snatched up a 2- to 3-foot Christmas nutcracker pole that was part of Christmas decor outside of his neighbor’s home.
“This dog had this little girl down just growling,” Miller said. “He had her arm and was shaking her like he would shake an animal or something. I hit the dog in the head three or four times, and it wouldn’t let loose.”
While trying to break up a pit bull fight in Franklinton over the summer I learned the best way to subdue a psycho pit bull is to fashion a noose out of a belt and throw it over the dog’s neck and subdue the beast that way. Stopping a mauling with a nutcracker pole is hardcore.
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