Ky paen to "conservative" world heralds' wisdom

Former Council bluff resident now editor the the Kentuck Standard, Bardstwon posts the following paen to the "conservative" Omaha world Herald and the "sage" of Omaha Harold Andersen. Didnt suburban families in western Douglas county know they have to shoulder society's burdens, and not just their own in raising good families? They need to so poor disadvantaged kids, along with their meth dealer teachers can suck off the affluence of suburban school districts. As usual the voices of wisdom get to send their kids to private schools like Creighton Prep and Brownwell Talbot. Friday, August 12, 2005 4:12 PM EDT RON FILKINS THE KENTUCKY STANDARD -- 8/14/05 Mixing a bit of work with pleasure was in the heartlands last week, where some tempers are flaring, not unlike the situation we've had recently in Bardstown and Nelson County. Except it's a double load in Omaha. You took a bite of the first hot potato if you guessed one of the disputes is annexation. The second hot tater, wrapped in a jalapeno and drenched in hot sauce, is the big brother city school district wanting to swallow up affluent suburban school districts. Talk about angst; our magistrates would have to take a seat in the back of the pickup to the boys out there shucking corn. The first battle pits City of Omaha vs. the town of Elkhorn. The trial got underway two weeks ago and whatever the decision, the losing side is expected to appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court. In a nutshell, Omaha wants to extend its tentacles to gobble up the town of Elkhorn, a community of about 8,000. Omaha's stated position is that it must have Elkhorn, so it doesn't block westward growth. In Nebraska, the smaller towns yield (obviously, not without a fight) to the metropolitan cities as long as the town has not reached a population of 10,000. Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey made his plans known in January. Elkhorn, to counter the assault by Omaha, has itself been annexing various subdivisions, trying to cross the magic 10,000 shield to where it could no longer be forcibly taken in. The trial is Omaha's biggest annexation battle since it took in the community of Millard in 1971. That case ended when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear it. This time around, both sides are loaded for bear. Turn up the heat by 20,000 BTUs. Invoking an 1891 law, the Omaha Public School System is seeking to absorb the affluent school systems of Ralston, Millard and Elkhorn. The 114-year-old law calls for the principle of "one city, one school district." The venerable retired publisher of the conservative powerhouse Omaha World-Herald, Harold W. Andersen, lines up in favor of the suburban districts coming under the fold of metro school system. As he noted in a recent column, Omaha school district leaders want the "residents of the entire city to share in serving the best interests of all the city's students, including the disadvantaged youngsters who are concentrated primarily in the Omaha public schools." He notes, in 1971 the Omaha system had 64,000 students as compared to today's enrollment of 46,500. Through the ensuing years, there was a great migration west to the new suburbs that someday may stretch to the capital city of Lincoln. Andersen wrote, "Some of the westward movement was described as 'white flight' to escape mandatory school busing from the Omaha district." Busing ended some years ago in Omaha. What's left in the inner city school district? More than 50 percent of the students come from low-income families. Nearly 7,000 students, Andersen detailed, were enrolled in special education classes and another 5,849 students were enrolled in English-as-a-second-language classes. "OPS officials say that socioeconomic problems reflected in OPS' enrollment are problems properly of concern to all residents of the city, who share the benefits of Omaha's economic, cultural and recreational resources without sharing in the problems associated with educating all of the children within the city." I grew up right across the river from Omaha, on the working man's west side of Council Bluffs, Iowa. I can remember back in 1958, riding in the rear seat of my dad's 1956 Chevy, to what was then near the very west outskirts of Omaha, the 7800 block of W. Dodge. Our mission was to view the handsome new building the company for which my sister would spend all 38 years of her working life was moving into. We shuddered at the thought of a 20-minute commute, one-way. Today, commerce and residential growth has expanded another two-fold beyond that point. The housing developments go on and on, in a huge swath west. Interstate highways and dizzying interchanges have led the way to covering fields, where straight rows of crops and fields with livestock once were omnipresent. Attending a social engagement on the far Westside Saturday evening, the OPS plan was a topic of discussion. Somewhat surprising to me was that several friends, all Republicans, who live in the affected areas are not in opposition to the OPS plan. For the most part, they see it as a natural evolution. It should be noted, their children are raised and out of the house. While it wasn't brought up, they probably would see their school tax rates go down, as the 'burb school districts tax heavily to support their schools of plenty -- nearly three times what we pay in Bardstown, for example. In the case of OPS, then, Andersen sees the good of the whole as superseding the good of some. I feel the same way about our annexation puzzle right here at home. The Omaha World-Herald helps set the agenda, and often helps determine the outcomes, for Omaha and, indeed, the state of Nebraska. Warren Buffet may very well have earned the title of the Sage of Omaha, but Andersen's has long been an esteemed voice of reason. In situations where emotions run high, the ability to reason, logically and with intelligence, is often in short supply.