Vet and Mike, I have been following your blogging since 2008 with great interest Thank you both for your almost always “right on the money” observations. Thank you for your courage in challenging and seeking the reasons for the city’s and school district’s persistently underachieving systems.

Middletown leaders seem to have a death wish for the city. I can’t understand their actions or thinking in any other way. And lo and behold, it is working. A city council that pursued 56% of Butler County’s section 8 vouchers on the grounds that they were trying to decrease vacancy rates in older homes is, well, to put it kindly, not rational. Do the landlords make millions? Yes. Does the city make money? No. Does the city lose a lot of money? Yes. Does this housing place additional burdens on city services, citizens, property values, and quality of education? Yes. Does it make the city more desirable for ANYONE to want to live or invest here? No. That’s what I mean by “not rational” and “death wish.”

Now to the schools. Dragged down still further by too many unsupportive families coming into the community, the schools have embedded an underachieving culture.

Let me say this loud and clear: Are the students in Middletown any less intelligent than kids in Lakota or Mason or other high achieving schools? NO.

Are the teachers any better or worse, by and large, than those in any other districts? NO. In fact, most of our teachers will ONLY dumb down when they are pressured or intimidated to do so—which they have been, for years. Steve Price was the proverbial straw. His delusional policies absolutely rocked this district. The teachers knew it early on and were appalled. You both knew it and called it, and others did too. And where was the school board during this debacle? That’s right, supporting his ideas and renewing his contract. That’s what I mean by “death wish.” But that is a whole other blog

Do the schools consistently underperform because they don’t have enough money? No. The schools never have enough money, by their account, and this is true pretty much across the country. So it doesn’t matter how many levies are passed, MCSD will always come back for more. Nature of the beast. And you can only change that beast by starving it. See what’s happening across Ohio and the country.

Then what is the difference? How does a school system like Little Miami, now insolvent and facing possible dissolution, still rank “excellent” despite no new money? How does Lakota continue to rank “excellent with distinction” year after year despite its threats that the district’s ranking would tumble without, that’s right, more money?

It’s the families. You both have said it many times.

However, all is not lost. What does the MCSD need?