Letters on school funding, tax disaster, Trump, Clinton, media truth

Trust judgment of school educators

Yet another self-identified expert on public school funding has weighed in, negatively, about how our schools ought to be satisfied with present support without more taxes (“More taxes not the answer for schools,” Sept. 28 Letters to the Editor).

Any discourse about whether funds for schools translate into the improvement of instruction to benefit students is reduced to this question: Just how much confidence in the schooling community should taxpayers embrace?

In other words: Are educators to be trusted?

My nearly six decades active involvement within the public schools environment, as both participant and intellectually honest critic, ought to give me more credibility than most who arbitrarily demean educators. Thus, I unequivocally support the continuing requests for “adequate funding,” even if this requires raising taxes.

The rationale for my support is what I consider well-founded evidence that public school educators are the best qualified to determine how the increase in funding will produce greater learner benefits, and I just as strongly trust their professional judgment.

Taxes real disaster

Gov. Sam Brownback’s request for a federal disaster declaration was again denied (“FEMA denies state’s appeal for funds for May storms,” Oct. 2 Eagle). His mistake: citing flooding as the cause instead of his tax policies.

Laws favor rich

Ma and Pa companies can go bankrupt, just like Donald Trump, but the difference is that they lose everything, including their credit rating. Mega-corporations don’t operate that way. They just move the losses over into another company and continue making money. There is something terribly wrong with that story.

I guess we have laws that favor those who have much and let those who have less suffer. Something needs to change.

Platform is biblical

It is hard to believe that Hillary Clinton’s platform is biblical. Several of her major platform planks are outlined in Romans 1:18-32. The results of her policies can also be seen throughout history in the downfall of country after country that turned to every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.

Clinton’s platform results can also be defined as the “wide gate,” as outlined in Matthew 7:13-14 – “For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

It is hard to believe there are many “Christian” pastors supporting “wide gate” choices proposed by the Democratic Party.

Which way are you choosing? Would the “narrow gate” describe the way you are choosing to live? Or are you choosing the smooth way, the way that meets the least resistance?

Truth not political

“‘Liberal’ press” ( Sept. 10 Letters to the Editor) argued that the free press is a liberal concept. It is a right guaranteed by our Constitution, intended to enable the dissemination of the truth. It provides a venue for all opposing points of view.

The truth is not political. It may not be what some want to face. But that doesn’t make it “liberal” or “conservative.”

So a free press is a concept that applies to and could be claimed by all forms of political persuasion.

All points of view are important in arriving at decisions. When any media source devotes the bulk or all of its coverage to a singular point of view – be it liberal, conservative or otherwise – it will be labeled as such. And as such, it is denying the public the ability to make decisions based on both sides of an argument.

The Constitution grants the media the right to do this. It’s up to the individual to search out all sides of an issue in making decisions. Sometimes this isn’t easy. Sometimes liberals and conservatives need to really listen to a point of view they totally disagree with. Sometimes one must read between the lines to find the truth. People must not always believe everything they hear.

The truth is there if one looks for it.

This story was originally published October 6, 2016 at 5:02 AM with the headline "Letters on school funding, tax disaster, Trump, Clinton, media truth."