Fewer teachers, larger classes not the answer
Regarding the proposed cuts in the state education budget and its impact on local schools:I have just read the Saturday paper and learned that the school system may have to make job cuts. When I added the number of teachers that may be cut, it made my stomach turn because the total was 84 teachers and 90 assistants.
The schools are shorthanded enough; if they cut all those teachers, then they have to put more kids in one class. They already have somewhere between 18 and 22 kids in one classroom. How many more can they stick in one class? In just one of the schools, six teachers will be lost.
Yes, we are going through hard times, but the stores and gas stations keep raising their prices. How do you suppose these teachers will live without their paychecks, and how do you suppose our kids will learn what they need to know without these teachers? Putting more kids in one class is not the answer.
We need our teachers in our schools. Where is the N.C. lotto money going if it is not going to our schools and teachers?
ó Kathleen Kiever
Salisbury
Leave schools alone, get money elsewhere
I don’t like bashing people, but I do have to get this off my chest.
I saw on television a few weeks ago about Gov. Beverly Perdue and some people were holding up signs saying What was she thinking!”
Well, as the days go on, and I keep hearing about the cuts she’s proposing, I’m thinking what were the voters thinking when they voted her into office? Why is it every time something has to be cut from the budget, it has to be the schools? Perdue needs to leave the schools alone and the teachers and get the money from other places.
Like the people who work for her, and not only them, the governor needs to have her salary cut. How much money would this save? Why does she start new jobs that have six-figure salaries? Who is she kidding? If she wants to create new jobs, give them to the people that don’t have a job to get them off unemployment or even welfare.
I really hate politicians because they are nothing but liars and crooks looking after themselves and not the average person. Let an average person be governor for a year and see what happens! Also, it’s not true that anyone can become president or be elected to another office; if you don’t have money you will never be anything but pawns in life making the rich richer.
ó David B. Harmon
Salisbury
Handicapped among those using sidewalks
It disturbs me that people put their property before the safety and rights of others. Public sidewalks should not even be a choice.
First of all, we all could benefit from getting out and walking more. Not only is it “green,” it is an excellent form of exercise. Walking is good for longterm cardiovascular health. And each of us has the right to do so in a safe manner. People shouldn’t have to walk on town streets and risk being hit by cars.
However, the main issue for me is that those who are handicapped have the right to safe mobility. That is precisely why the federal government gives money to communities to construct sidewalks. I have a friend who gets around by electric wheelchair. And he should be able to use sidewalks instead of having to drive his wheelchair in a roadway. Those who are handicapped are a protected class under federal guidelines. Businesses have to be handicap accessible. They have to have parking, ramps and even restroom facilities. Our communities are liable to the same laws and could even face lawsuits because of inaccessibility.
I commend the city of Salisbury for putting ramps on the corners of its sidewalks for wheelchairs and scooters. Salisbury has done a lot of work putting in new sidewalks. I hope other communities take heed as well. It’s about the greater good of the community, not about individuals.
ó Tammy L. Walser
Rockwell
Support our freedom, oppose annexation
We live in a nation founded in rebellion and built on the idea of individual freedom. Many have suffered and died to defend the fundamental beliefs that once defined and sustained us as the greatest, most powerful and most envied nation on earth. In contrast, there has never been a successful socialist nation, and all socialist/communist systems depend upon censorship, political oppression, police states and forced labor to sustain themselves.
Consider this: America is the only nation that needs a fence to keep people out; socialist nations build fences and minefields to keep their people prisoners. It makes one wonder why our president, vice president and the leftń wing media celebrate Americas’ turn toward socialism.
We now have “hate speech” legislation that will outlaw the Biblical teaching of homosexuality, making even pastors subject to arrest. We have the falsely named “Fairness Doctrine” that would force privately owned broadcast media to present far-left doctrine. We have taxpayer-funded partial-birth abortion and forced annexation.
We have political ideology being rewarded while individual accomplishment and hard work are punished, schools denigrating into political indoctrination camps and the nationalization of major industry. We have a Democratic Party that is no longer for the “common man” but which depends upon the employment of force to perpetuate its tax-funded malignancy. The Democratic Party now stands for the denial of voting rights, the abolition of private property and intrusive, controlling big government.
You can no longer take your freedoms for granted, nor can you expect someone else to fight for you. Join with those who fight forced annexation ó it is only one small state example of the growing government tyranny. Join Stopncannexation and the Fair Annexation Coalition or write to lexingtonnc@yahoo.com.
ó Keith Bost
Lexington