Letter: Students contribute more than board member, allies

 

To the Editor:

Every Worthington resident should read Thomas Worthington senior Kayleigh Edgecombe's gracious and touching column (Worthington News, June 3). Ms. Edgecombe thanked the entire Worthington community for the excellent education she received.

Her parents have every reason to be proud of having raised the young woman who wrote that column. The rest of us Worthington residents should be proud that our school system produces young people of Ms. Edgecombe's character.

The last sentence necessitates a discussion of a similar letter from 2002. Ms. Julie Anstine wrote an equally poignant letter to this paper only to be bullied in the next edition by now-school board member Marc Schare, who asked that Ms. Anstine thank the taxpayers.

The matter is worth resurrecting because Schare and his Educate Worthington acolytes continually claim that we can have an excellent school system for far less money than we now spend. However, when asked for a specific plan with concrete numbers to prove the contention, they utter mumbo-jumbo psychobabble.

Schare and his ilk have proven they can talk. They now owe it to the citizens and taxpayers of Worthington to present a comprehensive plan detailing the cuts that they want made and how much money each individual cut will save. That won't happen. The proof lies in the blowhard letter Schare wrote about Ms. Anstine.

I'll repeat what I said at the time. It shows no class or courage for a grown man to pick on an 18-year-old girl. I will expand on that. Ms. Anstine and Ms. Edgecombe have done more for the Worthington school system than Schare ever will.

Dick Graham