Suburbanites aren't the only ones to blame for killing the Cincinnati Public Schools' bond issue.

Some non-voting city residents are to blame, too.

And considering that 70.5 percent of CPS school students are African-American, I have to look at voter turnout in predominantly black wards for some of the answers, too.

In those wards, it's clear that too many voters stayed home.

Let's be fair. In an off-year election, voter turnout for the community at large tends to be tepid. Add rain and cold weather, and turnout gets abysmal.

But in some predominantly black wards, the turnout was below the already low averages for Hamilton County.

The average turnout throughout the county was 47.3 percent; for Cincinnati it was 40.77 percent. For seven predominantly black wards, the average was 36.12 percent.

A few wards did better, but others had turnouts in the 24 percent to 28 percent range. That means that about only one in four or one in three registered voters showed up.

No-shows and naysayers

Not considering race, the city neighborhoods with the worst turnouts - with rates ranging from 24 percent to 29 percent - were downtown, Over-the-Rhine, Liberty Hill, Mohawk, Fairview, University Heights, Clifton Heights, the West End, South Fairmount, Camp Washington and South Cumminsville.

Compare that to turnout in outlying communities, which lobbed the most "No" votes for the school issue: Cheviot had a 50.37 percent turnout, Green Township, a 55.97 percent rate, and Silverton's precincts 50.37 percent.

Despite what some apathetic non-voters may say, every vote still counts equally. If you don't vote, you let others call the shots.

If Cincinnati's parents and grandparents of schoolchildren had gone to the polls and voted for the bond issue, Cheviot and Green Township and those other communities wouldn't have been able to stop it.

When are Cincinnati's school parents going to take responsibility and control over their own children's educational destinies?

When they stop blaming others for failures in their school system and acknowledge that they, too, must play a part.

Tuesday, that part should have included dragging themselves to the polls and voting.

I almost wouldn't blame disappointed students, parents and educators if they gave up trying to improve the schools and student performance.

If the voters aren't behind you - if they don't care enough to inconvenience themselves enough to vote - then why should those in the trenches of education continue to sacrifice and struggle uphill?

The uninvolved parent

We know the answer to that one - because we must. Our children need to be educated in decent buildings, with decent resources, including decent class sizes and competent teachers.

We voted down - or allowed others to vote down - a measure that could have funded decent buildings.

Add to that an ongoing pattern of not enough parents pushing for decent resources and class sizes, and uninvolved parents allowing school administrators and the teachers union to bury a teacher-accountability plan. No wonder Cincinnati's public schools are struggling.

These same uninvolved parents, who haven't set foot in their children's schools since September, also don't follow their kids' homework or class work; they don't challenge them or their teachers to excel, and they don't vote.

Cincinnati's inadequate school system will continue to plunge into uselessness and, in the process, continue to pull the city and the region down with it.

E-mail damos@enquirer.com or phone 768-8395.