Some Arizona teachers truly are near the poverty level

I wish I had been able to attend the “Boat Parade” but I was busy teaching that day in a town three hours away. I got my degree after raising my children, and I teach because I love it and for the insurance.

Thank goodness my husband has a good income, because after the deductions for insurance, taxes and mandatory state retirement, I bring home less than $500 every two weeks. Is this close to the poverty level?

Another teacher who graduated with me teaches at the same school. This fulltime teacher qualifies for AHCCCS. Is this close to the poverty level?

It is a shame that Arizona government officials care so little and are so out of touch with what really goes on in education. It is a shame that Arizona teachers are valued so little when what we do is so vitally important.

— Jennine Wood, Pima

Stop receiving federal money or stop performing abortions

To Mary Jo Pitzl who claims that Planned Parenthood does not perform abortions using state dollars, and letter writer Michelle Shannon who also claims that Planned Parenthood’s funds cannot be used for abortions, let me say this.

If Planned Parenthood wants federal dollars for non-abortion services, they should quit performing abortions. That way the fungibility-of-money issue is solved forever.

Roughly one half of Planned Parenthood’s gross revenue is from federal dollars and they provide well over 300,000 abortions each year. If federal money is not used for abortion as they claim, Planned Parenthood should be able to continue to perform abortions without it.

Numerous other organizations who do not perform abortions could use the federal dollars to perform Planned Parenthood’s other services.

— Ralph Jedda,

Republicans wrong to attack Sinema over campaign money

I don’t understand why anti-trafficking activists “groused” when Representative Kyrsten Sinema donated $53,000 to the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence.

Rep. Sinema is not the first candidate to unknowingly accept money from sources who don’t identify their affiliations.

Instead of spending $25 per person to pay membership fees to the Coffee Club for an issue that’s now dead, how about using that money to do what the GOP could and should have been doing for the past several years, finding a solution to provide a health-care plan for the most vulnerable people in the nation. What you’re doing with Rep. Sinema just smacks of pettiness.

— Laura Brown, Pinetop

The Trump budget is a significant threat to American jobs as well

Trump’s budget proposal would cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s funding by 31 percent, eliminating 3,200 jobs, 50 programs and $100 million in funding for climate change programs.

The budget also slashes funding for the cleanup of hazardous industrial waste at Superfund sites.

In addition to eviscerating the EPA, Trump’s budget proposal reduces funding for other agencies working on climate change and renewable energy.

The proposal would eliminate the Department of Energy’s funding for advanced energy and vehicle research, eliminate the U.N.-affiliated Green Climate Fund and Global Climate Change Initiative, reduce funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and end funding for NASA’s missions to monitor Earth’s oceans and carbon dioxide levels.

The proposal to eliminate renewable energy funding is particularly problematic from an economic perspective, since renewable energy jobs are growing exponentially.

The solar sector alone generated one in every 83 new jobs in 2015, according to the Solar Foundation.

In proposing dramatic cuts to agencies that conduct crucial research on climate change and renewable energy, Trump’s budget outline threatens American jobs. — Joel Hamburg, Chandler

This longtime reader of sports pages will miss Paola Boivin

Since moving to Arizona 11 years ago, I have been reading Paola Boivin pretty much on a daily basis. Not only has she shown time and time again (as she did in this mornings column) that she is an outstanding journalist as well as a sportswriter.

I spent most of my adult life in California reading the L.A. Times and the late great Jim Murray. Paola is in the same league and will be missed. I wish her well. — Frank Jones, Sun City