By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
The Truth Contributor
A child miseducated is a child lost. – John F. Kennedy
Elections have consequences — and every election also has winners and
losers.
Last week’s primary in Lucas County delivered verdicts on public safety,
public education and political power that will shape our community, long after
the yard signs come down in November.
Here is my take on the May primary’s winners and losers.
Winner: The People of Lucas County
The 9-1-1 emergency communications levy passed. Like, who votes against
that? However, the 9-1-1 levy’s passage matters more than it sounds. This was
not merely about keeping the lights on at a government office. It was about
investing in and replacing towers, repeaters and the hardware technology that
saves lives when precious minutes and seconds matter.
People want to feel safe, and voters overrode the rising anti-levy mood hardening
across Ohio. And it passed despite the Lucas County Sheriff’s reluctance
to champion it.
Winner: The Toledo Zoo
The zoo’s levy passed, too — a lesson in smart strategy for every other levy
campaign that comes next. It may have well failed had it not been offered at a
reduced millage or lowered rate. That was smart — meet the taxpayer where
they are, financially.
Loser: Ohio’s Public School Children
The Sylvania and Springfield school levies both went down in flames. Let’s
just keep it real. Their defeat is more than the impact of the property tax revolt.
Ohio’s constitution requires the state to provide a common system of public
education. The state has been violating that requirement for years. Billions
in public dollars have been rerouted to private and religious schools through
voucher programs while local districts are left to beg at the levy ballot.
We have seen this movie before. It is the same systemic tool used to dismantle
historic Dorr Street. Here is the pattern: Outside forces extract wealth or
substantial resources from a thriving community until it ultimately destabilizes
that ecosystem, essentially strangling or bleeding it to death while blaming the
problem on the victim.
It is a strategy to shrink the state’s obligation and then watch public education
hollow out from the inside.
The families who lose in that scenario are not the ones who can write a
tuition check. They are our families. And the consequences are not abstract
— they show up as cut bus routes, shuttered schools, staggered start times
and eliminated programs. The things that make a school a school, gone one
budget cycle at a time.
Yes, the two school levies going down were the first levies coming off the
sticker shock last year, but that is a warning. And the officials who represent
our community need to be fighting this battle in Columbus — not waiting for
the next levy to fail. Otherwise, all public schools will have a difficult time
passing new property tax levies for a while, and the whole education system
might be upended.
Loser: Josh Williams
Josh Williams lost handily to Derek Merrin and will therefore be out of the
Ohio House in January. Williams has many detractors, especially in Lucas
County, a Democratic fortress. Some are already terming Williams as “forgettable”
and “irrelevant.” I am not going to pile on. But I will say this: No
one person is entirely good or bad — in politics, least of all. Williams was
known to collaborate with Democrats wherever common ground could be
found.
His departure leaves our community without a voice in Republican Columbus.
That is a loss worth naming plainly, whatever one’s politics and a
dilemma Black Republicans face in this current socio-political environment.
Winner (for now): Derek Merrin
As expected, Merrin won the primary going away. His victory sets up a
rematch against Marcy Kaptur, which is ranked a toss-up. His Trump alignment
fired up the Republican base to get here, while Madison Sheahen, the
former ICE Director, didn’t get much support.
Whether Merrin performs well in November among independents is a different
question — and his problem to solve. Yet, Democrats should not get
comfortable. A toss-up is a toss-up. U.S. House District 9 has been redrawn,
and the political environment is volatile. For our community, the congressional
stakes in November are too high for anything less than full engagement.
Watch: Democratic Enthusiasm
Analysts reported some Democratic enthusiasm, with higher-than-expected
turnout in the governor’s race. But I have been around long enough to
know that primary enthusiasm and November votes are not the same thing.
Overall, the primary told us this community still votes to protect itself
when safety is at stake. It told us that public education in Ohio is being slowly
strangled and running out of time. It told us that Black political influence
in Columbus is even thinner than it was. And it set up a November that will
matter — for this county, and for this state.
What happens next is up to us.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.
org