LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Clueless drivers
Regarding “Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles calls closing schools Tuesday due to freeze a mistake,” (Jan. 17): We Houstonians must be mindful that Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles grew up in and, after a career in the Army, returned to Colorado, where a freeze of the sort we recently experienced is just everyday weather.
He doesn’t understand how completely clueless Houston drivers are about driving over icy overpasses. Miles, think about training your bus drivers on icy-road driving and avoiding cars that will inevitably slide into a bus full of elementary students. Also budget for the lawsuits that will be filed by parents whose children were hurt in those bus accidents. Wouldn’t you rather have those funds in the budget to pay teachers?
Sally Lehr, Houston
HISD’s state-appointed superintendent’s comment regretting closing schools reminds me of Gen. George Patton during World War II. Patton was nicknamed “Old Blood and Guts” because he relentlessly pushed his troops in severe situations. It was a gutsy move for Mike Miles to say he wished schools remained open during the freeze with icy road conditions. Fortunately, surrounding school districts listened to sound advice and announced to close, taking measures to safeguard students and staff at their campuses.
Bill Pond, Humble
Basic income issues
Regarding “Basic income — and other examples of Harris County’s mission creep (Opinion),” (Jan. 21): Bravo, Charles Blain! Your opinion in Sunday’s Chronicle aptly expresses my consternation with the “Hidalgo-Ellis Act of 2024.”
There are no lack of issues with this handout, from the ZIP code lottery, to the redundancy with federal aid programs, to the impossible assurance that the funds are not spent on “illegal or criminal activity, to support terrorism, or to harm the safety or security of others.” I can also think of many other uses for $20.5 million. For example, new courts to address the unprecedented backlog of criminal cases.
Mr. Blain hit on a key issue, which is Judge Lina Hidalgo and Commissioner Rodney Ellis’ selling point to taxpayers: It’s not Harris County money, it’s federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act. Really? And that makes it OK? Like that piece of federal legislation wasn’t funded by our tax dollars, too?
Even more important is what happens when those funds are depleted. Then Harris County taxpayers get to fund the program directly and in its entirety, because the history of welfare has proven that once a welfare program is initiated, it is almost never reversed or terminated without another program to replace it. At that time, if the topic even becomes publicly discussed (or buried on page 6), we will hear how “We can’t just abandon the recipients.”
Thomas Sowell, one of the most brilliant minds of our time, has spoken often regarding welfare. One of my favorites is, “Mystical references to ‘society’ and its programs to ‘help’ may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really means is putting more power in the hands of bureaucrats.”
Hayden Black, Spring
It has been said, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for one day, but teach a man to fish and he will eat for his entire life.” Pretty sage stuff, if you ask me.
After a recipient gets their first $500 and they buy the 70-inch flat screen TV they have coveted, what next?
What is wrong with the way the G.I. Bill worked? You gave a few years’ service to your country and as long as you succeeded in school, you would have your tuition paid for. Wow! An education and no student debt. How much better does that get?
OK, I get it. Some will need food, some may need child care, and some may need transportation. On a needbased criteria they will receive it as long as they perform at school and until they land their first job. And I mean not just a university but an accredited trade school also.
I graduated from high school and got accepted to Texas A&M, for which my parents paid. I truly wasn’t ready and ended up in a community college, which I paid for because my parents refused, then another until I woke up and joined the Air Force. Four years and Vietnam later, with a new wife, I went back to school on the G.I. Bill. I retook most all the classes I had previously failed miserably and graduated with an associate’s degree and 4.0 average. Then I went to a four-year college. And, if you do well enough, the government will actually pay you to tutor others on the G.I. Bill.
How did that happen? Motivation: I found it! And you can also.
Robert Mueller, Houston