Why aren’t Central Ohio’s Public Schools districts reaching out to Black owned businesses?
OhioMBE – November 1, 2014
By Ronda Watson Barber
Publisher
The more I speak and interact with local public school districts and municipalities, I am convinced that certification programs and procurement goals are most necessary. It is appalling that public school districts who receive tax dollars are not practicing good faith efforts to include all segments of their respective communities in purchasing activities. For all we know purchasing agents from Central Ohio’s public school districts are calling their brother-in-laws, lodge buddies, or neighbors regarding purchasing opportunities. They certainly are not reaching out to minority and Black owned business with regards to procurement opportunities.
I believe that if school districts are receiving public tax dollars they should make efforts to introduce purchasing opportunities to their entire community. South-Western City Schools is blatant in ignoring good faith efforts. Their treasurer has repeatedly ignored public record requests to provide information on their operating budget and the amount of public dollars spent with minority and Black owned businesses. The leader of Bexley City Schools answered most questions on the public record request except the first and most important, “What do you do to have an inclusive purchasing pool of vendors that is a reflection of your community? What are your good-faith contracting efforts?
With the exception of the Columbus City School district, why aren’t Central Ohio’s public school districts interested in doing business with Black-owned companies? They definitely are very receptive to accepting the tax dollars generated from Black families and businesses in their communities. I encourage residents and Black owned businesses in Bexley, Westerville, Whitehall, Worthington, Pickerington and Grove City to contact their school board president and superintendent and inquiry about the district’s good faith purchasing efforts.
Local municipalities are no different. The City of Bexley gets a lot of visits and business from Black folks. City officials are not interested in meeting local Black owned business and have refused to respond to repeated public records requests. Again, local entities are benefitting from Black tax dollars and business purchases but are not providing economic opportunities to Black businesses. Maybe we shouldn’t patronize cities that operate in this matter. Black business is good business. Our votes and dollars have power.
Just my thoughts – rwb
