Just move on, please
I do not think any elected official has or should have carte blanche to buy whatever their hearts desire on the people’s dime, but I am still amazed at the Podium-gate response and the resources being spent to prove the podium should not have been purchased in the manner it was.
Hasn’t that pretty much been remedied and taken off the citizens’ tab? Without a precise tally, it seems to me that hundreds of thousands in taxpayers dollars (and people hours) are being spent to prove what we all seem to know. Any other improprieties discovered are still part of a $19,000 mistake in judgment. Does anyone think anything significant will come of all this, other than wasted news time, fodder for opinion writers, and a light slap on the wrist? Does anyone think we’ll get rid of the governor over this? This is what we want our elected officials spending their/our precious time and resources on? Ridiculous waste. Let’s move on.
The LEARNS Act is overdue, and it’s not about closing public schools. It is about giving parents a choice for the school that best fits the needs of their child, paying (finally) teachers a decent wage, and instilling some sense of civic duty to high schoolers. Good (not confused with convenient) schools do not close. We lived and raised our family in Memphis. There were waiting lists for the few good public schools. I also read letters here stating the act is about giving rich folks money they don’t need to send their kids to private schools they’re already attending. It is for everyone, not just rich folks; and what, you don’t think they pay taxes, likely more than most, that go to public education? We were not rich, but we scrimped enough to put our kids in a great parochial school. Our premature twin sons were getting little to no help they desperately needed in public schools. The move to private was life-changing for them. I truly believe their paths would have been much different otherwise.
Public education has been deteriorating for decades, despite the billions that have been thrown at it. Talk about ridiculous waste.
Let parents choose.
TIM GREEN
Little Rock