Immigrant kids excel — another reason to keep them

Every year, high school students across the United States participate in a science fair. Local winners advance to state and regional competitions and ultimately to the national level.

Overseen by the non-profit Society for Science and the Public, the science fair competitions have been conducted continuously for nearly 80 years.

Many readers may know this program by the name of its sponsoring organizations. Initially it was the “Westinghouse Talent Search,” then the “Intel Talent Search” and now the “Regeneron Talent Search.” Many participants have gone on to win Nobel Prizes.

This year, out of 2,000 initial entrants, 40 finalists were chosen to compete for the top awards. Twenty-seven of those participants were the children of immigrants. Five of the participants were immigrants themselves.

The winner of the competition was a young Hispanic woman who developed a mathematical model to determine the possible locations of planets outside our solar system that might have been missed by NASA’s Kepler telescope.

Her model may allow for the discovery of over 500 additional planets missed by the Kepler program.

The key takeaway here is that judging the quality of the mind by the ethnicity of the face denies society access to great ideas that are beneficial to all.

Those who chant “send them back” need to appreciate that much of the current quality of life came about because many of those considered “others” thrived within our borders and made it a point to contribute to a country that gave them the opportunity to excel.

Don’t knock Ducey’s job growth — it trumps that of Napolitano

Your recent article on job growth and increasing salary growth contains 3 major

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First, the Arizona trend line is extremely favorable. Our state trajectory for job and wage growth is exemplary.

Second, we can thank Gov. Doug Ducey for this robust leadership. It would have been interesting to see comparison numbers with former Gov. Janet Napolitano.

Third, a great part of this job growth is attributable to President Trump eliminating prior government over-regulation that hindered job growth.

Rather than minimizing stellar job growth numbers, inform us why these things are happening.

The voters of Arizona should take a bow for Ducey accomplishments

I lost count of how many times Doug Ducey touted “bigger paychecks” in his self-congratulatory statements about the economy. The disingenuous posture is a steaming compost pile that the governor just keeps piling more and more garbage on.

I have a special-needs brother who lives with me, and he’s been a part-time dishwasher for his entire adult life. A few years ago he was making $8.05 an hour, but he’s now making $11 and hour, and next year it will be $12.

The credit for those “bigger paychecks” goes 0% to Doug Ducey and 100% to Arizona voters who passed Prop. 206 minimum wage increase in a landslide back in 2016.

Next time feels inclined to give Ducey print to claim undue credit, perhaps they could also offer some space to Cold Stone Creamery employees. Let’s hear their opinions on their current wages vs. what they were making when Doug Ducey was their CEO.