Should be headline news
Oversight for underserved
Regarding “HISD plans greater academic, financial oversight of in-district charters” (May 13): The misappropriation of millions of educational dollars deserves to be headline news. No one reading this headline would ever know that buried at the bottom of the article is information about a charter school operator that pocketed $4.1 million dollars in loan forgiveness. Why does ripping off Houston’s poorest children need to be kept a secret?
The students at Energized for Excellence Academy are 97 percent economically disadvantaged. The $4.1 million dollars that Ms. Bullock helped herself to was their educational money. These students need a voice. They deserve to be championed. Ann Eagleton, Houston
Sacrifices big and small
Regarding “Hidalgo’s mask order isn’t ‘draconian’ — or new in Texas. Abbott is the one to overreach” (April 27): All Texans are anxious to see our state, and our nation, return to business as usual. However, we are currently in a war, and people are losing their lives. And this war in two months has cost the U.S. 30,000 more lives, primarily older Americans, than the entire Vietnam War. We need to step up during reopening of our stores, businesses, and churches in a very different way than we asked prior generations during the wars they faced. Those Americans in their nineties were asked to put their lives on the line in the war with the Nazis and Japanese; those in their eighties put their lives at risk in Korea, and those of us in our seventies were asked to serve our country and possibly risk our lives during Vietnam.
All we need to be demanding of our countrymen and women during this current COVID-19 war is to wear a mask, social distance and wash our hands. That’s a whole lot less to ask than asking our older generations to get shot at. If politicians actually had a real interest in both saving lives and restarting our economy, they wouldn’t say “pretty please” do these things, but would actually require us all to do them, and then lead by example. Otherwise, they can continue saying “pretty please” in an effort to keep up their numbers in the polls ... and then watch the second wave of COVID-19 overrun us all.
And everything starts with the president, congressmen and all our political leaders. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Harry D. Smith Jr., Spring
Five years too long
Regarding “Voters file criminal complaint against Texas AG Ken Paxton over mail-in voting threats” (May 11): Why are Texans OK with being told what they can and cannot do by someone who may be a criminal? Ken Paxton has been under indictment for nearly five years! That is ridiculous. He must stand trial like anyone else. If he’s guilty, he should be removed from office. If he’s found not guilty, that’s fine. For him to be serving as AG of Texas for this long, while under indictment, makes a mockery of our judicial process. I have no expertise or conflicts of interest. I am just a concerned Texan. Dean Osborne, Spring