LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Educator’s view different

I would like to rebut Edward Dugan’s comments that “teachers . . . are functional illiterates,” and that the “teacher education system [attracts] the lowest 30 percent of incoming college students.”

Though I earned high honors, my degree was not specific to education. Additional training was required for licensure: two years of supplementalteaching classes, testing of content knowledge and pedagogy, mentor coaching for two years, and in-class observation by a state appointed assessor.To maintain licensure, the state requires 60 hours of professional development a year. All licensed educators are held to these rigorous standards. Along with many of my coworkers, I have acquired a Master’s in Education. Neither I nor my colleagues are illiterate, nor were we lured to this profession because we were in the bottom 30 percent of our classes.

The downfall of American education began, Dugan claims, when “teachers ceased to be professionals and joined a union.” Yet he admits that “discipline problems [are] a major factor of what’s wrong today.” In the past, schools meted out corporal punishment. Today, educators fear being sued for merely touching a child. Fear of lawsuits is one reason I belong to the National Education Association. Combating perceptions that teachers are illiterate and inept is another. Hiding incompetency is not.

Dugan has poisoned public perception about my profession with unfounded and slanderous statements. Please consider an educator’s viewpoint.

DEBORAH WENGER RogersInvest in Americans

We have been here before. After borrowing and spending tons of money, we began to show signs of recovery in 1937. The national debt was almost where it is today as a percentage of gross domestic product. President Franklin Roosevelt cut spending to try and balance the budget. The economy fell back into recession. Four million people lost their jobs. We had to put people back to work and bring down the national debt as a percentage of GDP. Congress authorized another $5 billion in work relief and public works. By June of 1938, our economy began to recover once again, but it was slow and painful.

Then came the war. By 1944 unemployment was down to 1.2 percent. We borrowed tons of money to build the largest war machine the world has ever seen. The national debt rose to 120 percent of GDP. Still, we found the money to rebuild Europe as a bulwark against Communism, send our returning veterans to college, fight another war in Korea and maintain a navy that was bigger and more powerful than all the rest of the world’s navies put together. Where did all the money come from?

Our greatest learned some things we have forgotten. Every businessman knows that in order to make money you have to spend money, but you don’t build a plant to make widgets when there is no demand for widgets. The American people are our greatest resource. An educated and healthy population is more productive than an uneducated and unhealthy population.

RUUD DuVALL FayettevilleBold solutions aren’t

I have been troubled and perplexed by House Speaker John Boehner and the Republican Party during recent talks on reducing the federal deficit. Rep. Tim Griffin has aligned with their misguided approach. Earlier this year I attended Griffin’s “Conversation about National Debt” where he called for “bold solutions” to address the deficit. Griffin completely rejected tax increases as part of the strategy to balance the budget, erroneously saying that historically tax cuts don’t create deficits.

It is hard to take the GOP’s concern about the deficit seriously if they think tax cuts didn’t add to the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office stated that renewing the Bush tax cuts increases the deficit by $103 billion in 2011. The two presidents most closely associated with cutting taxes have added trillions to the national debt. Even David Stockman, Ronald Reagan’s budget director, says that Republicans who consider the Bush tax cuts sacred “ignore facts entirely.” Bold solutions indeed.

I agree that our national debt needs to be addressed. President Obama has proposed trillions of dollars in cuts over a decade. Republicans offer greater cuts as well, but refuse to consider tax increases. Ultimately, both sides will need to make concessions to arrive at a workable solution. Any reasonable person must acknowledgethat this can only be done by combining a reduction in spending with appropriate tax increases. That is how Bill Clinton was able to do it.

BOB ESTES Little RockRoss missed chance

Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross has said he would do what he could to get Obamacare fixed or repealed. I am an Arkansas resident who wrote, emailed and phoned Ross’ and Sen. Mark Pryor’s offices multiple times (Ipersonally visited Mark Pryor’s office). Mike Ross is a total hypocrite.

It is true that Mike Ross voted against the health care act. However, he allowed the billto pass through his Energy Committee first. All he needed to do was vote against it at that time, and we would have been saved from this debacle. I believe Pryor voted for it, too.

I don’t understand most Arkansas Democrats. Even our governor, Mike Beebe, has not joined the lawsuit, supported by many other states, against the federal government regarding this issue. I am sure this type of hypocrisy is happening in every state of the union. When will we wake up? What will it take?

TERESA HILLESTAD SearcyThree solutions given

Would this solve our deficit? First, we should force anyone receiving government welfare payments to pass drug tests. If they fail the tests all payments are stopped for three months, when they will be tested again. A failure on this drug test would result in a loss of payments for one year and all subsequent years where the tests show positive for drugs.

Second, lots of people on food stamps are obese. If a person on food stamps is obese, they should have their food stamp allotment cut by 20 percent. After six months if they have not sufficiently reduced their obesity problem, the allotment would be cut another 20 percent. This would not only reduce the cost of food stamp programs but would also reduce the Medicaid costs by making people healthier.

Third, we should increase farm production by renting out the 35 million acres taken out of production by the government. Rent this land to farmers, which would bring in more government revenue. This would cause an overproduction of farm commodities, which could be bought up by the government and sold to countries that we are not on good terms with. They would become somewhat dependent on the U.S. for food, which would make them more friendly toward us. Also, they cannot shoot food at us, they would consume it and want to buy more. This would help the people of that country more than the government, and the money would be money coming into our country rather than going out.

WILLIAM BARKER MariannaColumn a bright spot

Goodness gracious, the Democrat-Gazette gets a wonderful writer and you get rid of them. Jay Grelen’s Sweet Tea column is the first thing I read when I open my paper. Have you thought about us, the readers who are so tired of gloom, doom, despair, unemployment and our wars?

A part of the readers like to start the day out with a bright smile before the despair sets in.

I would like to express my gratitude to Grelen for making my day frequently and lightening the burden that we sometimes carry.

MARY NICHOLS Slabtown Proposal hurts elderly

In his recent letter, Joseph C. Beck would have us believe that Rep. Paul Ryan’s dog and pony voucher proposal would save Medicare. Turning Medicare over to profit-driven insurance companies is like turning the management of the hen house over to a pack of hungry raccoons.

Saving Medicare will come when millionaires, oil company executives,

over-priced doctors, hedge fund managers and the mega-wealthy pay the necessary taxes to fund the program into the future. No cuts should be made in Medicare, and it should continue under the people’s management with improved oversight. Medicare has saved so many lives and done so much good for the elderly and disabled in America. Ryan’s ideas are truly death panels for the elderly.

K. E. POLLOCK Little Rock Where’s beef? Here.

I think the whole world has gone nuts. The Supreme Court sided with Walmart. I wonder how many pockets got full there?

Another plant in Fort Smith is moving to Mexico so they can get cheap labor. Why aren’t the products cheaper when we buy them? I boughta TV a while back and had to hire a college professor to reprogram it. All I was getting were Spanish channels. I’ve have satellite with over 250 channels and nothing to watch. Pay TV is pay for commercials.

Now the rest of the world, these goons say they don’t need God and states say gay marriage is okay. A person’s lifestyle is their business, but it’s sinful to live this way. A lady who claims to be a pastor married two women. First of all, she is no pastor. You’ve heard of three strikes and you’re out. She’s gay, strike one, a gay preacher, strike two, and marrying gay couples is strike three.

Now every TV show has a gay person on it. I won’t watch such trash.

Recently I bought bought 40 lbs. of corn for the deer. I got charged for 50 lbs. At least this has been corrected. I had my truck worked on. They said it would take four hours. Two and a half days later, it came home.

Has anyone tried to hire a driver, caretaker or housekeeper lately? I talked to 30 people and hired one. That’s enough beefing for now.

NORBERT GUNDERMAN SolgohachiaFeedback Bone-headed move

I will be honest with you, I read your paper only for the news our local paper does not carry. I seldom ever read feature columns, and especially not Gene Lyons, Pat Lynch or any other of your feature writers. The one column I did read and never missed was the Sweet Tea column, I sincerely enjoyed the way the column told stories and related to people I would never have known about. Now, the Democrat-Gazette has cancelled it. Believe me when I say there are lots of other columns you could have cancelled and no one would have cared. This is on a par with the cancellation of “Overboard” twice, and we all know how that turned out. I hope other Sweet Tea readers will let you know just how boneheaded you are.

GARY STAUBER Mountain Home Photo out of place

Have the Democrat-Gazette’s editors lost it? On our independence holiday weekend, they “in our faced” a photo of the hammer and sickle Communist symbol on the front page of the paper. Why not a big red, white and blue American flag? The hammer and sickle photo could have been positioned on the bottom of the comics page.

PAUL BASH Little Rock