Voucher decision should have been big news

I am quite surprised that there’s been little or no coverage of last week’s N.C. Supreme Court ruling on school vouchers.  I first was alerted to this via Facebook.

Tuesday’s Post has a column by Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch (“Vouchers, by the numbers)”.  But I haven’t found any news coverage of this ruling.

This ruling portends what could be a huge and negative effect on funds available to all N.C. public school systems.  Money paid out to charter, private and religious schools will come directly from the already shrinking funding for our public schools.

I understand that a small Piedmont city school system (not RSS) two years ago had to forfeit around $450,000 to cover 75 students that indicated they would attend charter programs.

It’s especially important to know that those surrendered funds would not return to the LEA if the students decided to leave the charters and return to their home schools.

Charter, private, and religious schools are under no obligation to accept and meet the needs of all students, unlike our public schools.

Our community needs to know more about this.

— Ron Turbyfill

Landis

Editor’s reply: We published an Associated Press story about the decision on Page 9A of the July 24 paper, and we will try to  publish more information in the future. Thanks for the suggestion.

Crafts complement blooms

The writer is referring to a story in Sunday’s Post, “McCoy’s garden blooms for the Humane Society.”

Yea, Mark Wineka!  Great coverage for the gardening event of the season!  However, there was one other noteworthy event going on at the cutting that deserves special recognition.

There were three very special young ladies (10-ish) who had their own table of crafts that they had made and were selling at very special prices for the animals.

Grayce, Abbie and Anna exhibited a wide variety of items that they were offering in order to make a donation to the Humane Society. Their  salesmanship was extraordinary as they offered wallets out of duct tape, earrings out of colored rubber bands, handmade scarves,  beautifully painted rocks,  a garbage can out of newspaper (I do believe it was the Salisbury Post), and a host of other doodads too cute to pass up.

What struck me most was their excitement and genuine enthusiasm for this early-in-ife experience in philanthropy. You go, girls.  I’ve already gotten a compliment on my wallet!

— Nancy Brandt

Salisbury