{"id":19359,"date":"2026-05-14T18:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=19359"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:05:07","slug":"winners-losers-and-a-warning-for-toledo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/14\/winners-losers-and-a-warning-for-toledo\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners, Losers and a Warning for Toledo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Donald Perryman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/p>\n

A child miseducated is a child lost.\u00a0 – John F. Kennedy<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elections have consequences \u2014 and every election also has winners and
\nlosers.
\nLast week\u2019s primary in Lucas County delivered verdicts on public safety,
\npublic education and political power that will shape our community, long after
\nthe yard signs come down in November.
\nHere is my take on the May primary\u2019s winners and losers.
\nWinner: The People of Lucas County
\nThe 9-1-1 emergency communications levy passed. Like, who votes against
\nthat? However, the 9-1-1 levy\u2019s passage matters more than it sounds. This was
\nnot merely about keeping the lights on at a government office. It was about
\ninvesting in and replacing towers, repeaters and the hardware technology that
\nsaves lives when precious minutes and seconds matter.
\nPeople want to feel safe, and voters overrode the rising anti-levy mood hardening
\nacross Ohio. And it passed despite the Lucas County Sheriff\u2019s reluctance
\nto champion it.
\nWinner: The Toledo Zoo
\nThe zoo\u2019s levy passed, too \u2014 a lesson in smart strategy for every other levy
\ncampaign that comes next. It may have well failed had it not been offered at a
\nreduced millage or lowered rate. That was smart \u2014 meet the taxpayer where
\nthey are, financially.
\nLoser: Ohio\u2019s Public School Children
\nThe Sylvania and Springfield school levies both went down in flames. Let\u2019s
\njust keep it real. Their defeat is more than the impact of the property tax revolt.
\nOhio\u2019s constitution requires the state to provide a common system of public
\neducation. The state has been violating that requirement for years. Billions
\nin public dollars have been rerouted to private and religious schools through
\nvoucher programs while local districts are left to beg at the levy ballot.
\nWe have seen this movie before. It is the same systemic tool used to dismantle
\nhistoric Dorr Street. Here is the pattern: Outside forces extract wealth or
\nsubstantial resources from a thriving community until it ultimately destabilizes
\nthat ecosystem, essentially strangling or bleeding it to death while blaming the
\nproblem on the victim.
\nIt is a strategy to shrink the state\u2019s obligation and then watch public education
\nhollow out from the inside.
\nThe families who lose in that scenario are not the ones who can write a
\ntuition check. They are our families. And the consequences are not abstract
\n\u2014 they show up as cut bus routes, shuttered schools, staggered start times
\nand eliminated programs. The things that make a school a school, gone one
\nbudget cycle at a time.
\nYes, the two school levies going down were the first levies coming off the
\nsticker shock last year, but that is a warning. And the officials who represent
\nour community need to be fighting this battle in Columbus \u2014 not waiting for
\nthe next levy to fail. Otherwise, all public schools will have a difficult time
\npassing new property tax levies for a while, and the whole education system
\nmight be upended.
\nLoser: Josh Williams
\nJosh Williams lost handily to Derek Merrin and will therefore be out of the
\nOhio House in January. Williams has many detractors, especially in Lucas
\nCounty, a Democratic fortress. Some are already terming Williams as \u201cforgettable\u201d
\nand \u201cirrelevant.\u201d I am not going to pile on. But I will say this: No
\none person is entirely good or bad \u2014 in politics, least of all. Williams was
\nknown to collaborate with Democrats wherever common ground could be
\nfound.
\nHis departure leaves our community without a voice in Republican Columbus.
\nThat is a loss worth naming plainly, whatever one\u2019s politics and a
\ndilemma Black Republicans face in this current socio-political environment.
\nWinner (for now): Derek Merrin
\nAs expected, Merrin won the primary going away. His victory sets up a
\nrematch against Marcy Kaptur, which is ranked a toss-up. His Trump alignment
\nfired up the Republican base to get here, while Madison Sheahen, the
\nformer ICE Director, didn\u2019t get much support.
\nWhether Merrin performs well in November among independents is a different
\nquestion \u2014 and his problem to solve. Yet, Democrats should not get
\ncomfortable. A toss-up is a toss-up. U.S. House District 9 has been redrawn,
\nand the political environment is volatile. For our community, the congressional
\nstakes in November are too high for anything less than full engagement.
\nWatch: Democratic Enthusiasm
\nAnalysts reported some Democratic enthusiasm, with higher-than-expected
\nturnout in the governor\u2019s race. But I have been around long enough to
\nknow that primary enthusiasm and November votes are not the same thing.
\nOverall, the primary told us this community still votes to protect itself
\nwhen safety is at stake. It told us that public education in Ohio is being slowly
\nstrangled and running out of time. It told us that Black political influence
\nin Columbus is even thinner than it was. And it set up a November that will
\nmatter \u2014 for this county, and for this state.
\nWhat happens next is up to us.
\nContact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.
\norg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D. The Truth Contributor A child miseducated is a child lost.\u00a0 – John F. Kennedy Elections have consequences \u2014 and every election also has winners and losers. Last week\u2019s primary in Lucas County delivered verdicts on public safety, public education and political power that will shape our community, long after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,252],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[347],"class_list":["post-19359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-opinion","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19360,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19359\/revisions\/19360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19359"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=19359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}