When he says the public can't make a decision regarding this issue, did not we the public make a decision to elect a Board of Education to address these educational issues? When it comes down to it, the elected Board of Education members are the people who have been entrusted with making these difficult decisions regarding educating our children.
They chose to have the Blue Ribbon Committee do some quality research and make some hard decisions, and now other political bodies want to undermine the results of their hard work and research?
The Commissioners are politically manipulating the Board of Education with finances and threats of budget cuts to get the result they want, which is the closing of the two schools. I am not sure what the political agenda is here, but it certainly won't be to the benefit of the children of Washington County.
Lisa Perry
Frederick, Md.
Why not compensate all of the survivors?
To the editor:
The government action relative to the families of the World Trade Center attacks riles me. What is happening to us as a nation? Our INS, FBI, CIA, and other government agencies have been sleeping too long.
I hope 9/11 woke them up for coffee. The attacks on the World Trade Center was terrible, but such attacks were very predictable. Agreed, we should have compassion for those killed in the attacks and their families, but I see no more so than for those killed otherwise through no fault of their own.
For we taxpayers to provide inordinate amounts of compensation and tax breaks to the families of those killed seems out of order and appears to be a government PR move. If we compensate them, why not compensate all those killed by whatever means?
What does a military person's family get when he or she is killed? A folded flag and maybe a few thousand dollars. Our government should not try to cover past mistakes by trying to reap favor through what appears to be a grandiose "we love you" move.
Hugh R. Crane
Berkeley Springs, WV
Fully fund special ed
To the editor:
In the State of Maryland, 110,000 students are affected by a federal bill titled the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA). As a former Special Education teacher and on behalf of those students, I would like to thank U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski for voting in the conference committee of the bill to fully fund the federal share of this act.
Since it started 30 years ago, IDEA funding has been carried mostly by the states, despite the fact that it's a federal law. But this year, Congress has the ability to fully fund its federal portion. Senator Mikulski cast her vote in favor of this funding, and should get full credit for standing up for the 110,000 Maryland children affected by this legislation. For the sake of our kids, I urge her to stick to her guns
Patricia A. Foerster
President
Maryland State Teachers Association
Annapolis, Md.
