LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Move school elections

Arkansas has. . . 468,066 students in 239 public school districts and 18 open-enrollment charters funded by $5.3 billion in total investment, including $2.3 billion from the state, accounting for 46 percent of all general revenue, producing an 80.7 percent graduation rate, with 46 percent requiring post secondary remediation, generating a 22.2 percent two-year-college graduation rate (20th in U.S.) and 38.7 percent four-year college graduation rate (48th in U.S.), resulting in 27.9 percent of Arkansans with at least a two-year degree, 18.7 percent with a four-year degree (49th in U.S.), and 6.7 percent with a graduate degree (50th in U.S.), governed by 1,432 local school board members elected, not by 66 percent of registered voters, as in the last general election, but by 0.66 percent in the separate school election.

That’s 100 times less voter turnout.

Parental and community involvement and leadership in our schools must begin with the elections of those who govern them. Until we move school elections to the general election ballot, there will continue to be . . . no education without representation. Regnat Populus.

GARY NEWTON

Little Rock

Fragile infrastructure

Yes, I am very grateful to those dedicated utility workers for whom the whole state should be grateful.

But as I and my wife and dogs were trying to keep warm without electric power, I couldn’t help wondering: Why is our electrical infrastructure so seemingly fragile? Not knowing a whole lot about electricity, it still seems to me that the electric company would learn from past experience and beef up its transmission lines, transformers and power-grid things.

After all, they are still collecting an ice storm recovery fee from us on our monthly bill.

ROY RIDINGS

Little Rock

Growing up is needed

Yup.

I knew when the Republicans voted for the fiscal-cliff deal that there would be heck to pay. Almost instantly, the commentator class (Rush, Sean, Glenn, Ann and Laura), along with some Tea Party activists, promised to make the Republicans pay dearly in 2014, meaning cost the Republicans the House.

Boy, that sounds like winning strategy-winning by losing.

Fellow conservatives, now is not the time to cannibalize each other and unite for the debt-ceiling fight. This notion of ideological purity is destroying the conservative movement and Republican Party. Nobody gets everything they want all the time. Not in life or politics. I would rather get something than nothing.

I know I will be called a RINO, Rockefeller, or establishment elitist for my words. I prefer that to an unrealistic, uncompromising, rigid ideologue who lives in a fantasy world.

Some of my fellow conservatives need to grow up and stop this “no differences in the parties” garbage.

ROBERT YEAKLEY

Springdale

Use caution? Psshaw

Arkansas now has the OK to partner with the federal government on health exchanges. A 6 percent premium fee will pay for the cost of these exchanges. Lo and behold, the state will once again make money. This time it will be $25 million. What if the 6 percent does not cover the cost?

The $25 million is nothing compared to the money and jobs the state will see with the expansion of Medicaid. Arkansas will see $550 million in extra money and 6,000 jobs created. What is the cost to the taxpayers for these new state jobs? With $550 million in savings on expanding Medicaid, why is the state wasting money and time on a health exchange with only $25 million in extra money? Put everyone in Medicaid.

I’m sure that never in history has there been a federal or state program that lived up to all the hype and none ever made money for the taxpayers. If you believe the hype put out by Democrats, the state should not only expand Medicaid, it should double or triple the amount of people in the Medicaid program. The state could see $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion in extra money and thousands of more jobs.

Gov. Mike Beebe wants to rush this huge expansion regardless of any future cost to the taxpayers. Sen. Michael Lamoureux is taking the responsible approach of slowing things down to make sure the state doesn’t end up with an unfunded mandate that cannot be paid for without raising taxes.

What a novel idea.

KEN SPARROW

Conway

One miserable review

In a flagrant display of ignorance, your reviewer for the film Les Miserables has given our family serious pause to consider anything he might write in the future to be utter tripe.

How can anyone who writes for a newspaper not have a smattering of literature awareness? Does he also believe that The Three Musketeers is just a candy bar?

How can an editor allow a review into print when the writer apparently

does not even know the difference between opera and a musical?

BARNEY CLARK

Little Rock

Deserving of apology

Some time ago, as this letter is overdue, a columnist used every possible method at his disposal to create a negative commentary about Mark Pryor.

This shouldn’t have been too surprising. After all, Pryor ran on the Democratic ticket, (although I don’t believe he completely endorses either abortion or gay marriage) and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette apparently is firmly ensconced with the Republican Party.

What did surprise me was the total lack of compassion or acknowledgment of Pryor’s voting record. If you’ve observed, as I always do, how Steve Womack, John Boozman, Pryor and Tim Griffin vote on bills before them, you surely have noticed that Womack, Boozman and Griffin all tend to vote on party lines whether it’s in the best interests of the people or not (such as votes to cut Medicare or Social Security, affecting the elderly, many of them poor).

Pryor, on the other hand, appears to read every bill and may vote with the Democrats on one, the Republicans on another, not so much for the party, but in the best interests of the people.

My personal opinion: David and Mark Pryor have contributed a great deal to the welfare of the people of our state, and our country. I think the Democrat-Gazette owes them both an apology, big time.

DIXIE ANN COLE

Fayetteville