Letters To The Editor

TEACHER IN-SERVICE TRAINING

No boondoggle, just a bad rap

In an article published in the Jan. 27 SpokesmanReview, readers are mislead into believing the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction spent $24,000 to send 145 of its secretaries to an overnight conference. I ask that you provide readers with the following information:

The 1994 support staff conference costs charged to this agency, as noted in our annual state audit report, totaled slightly less than $7,000, not $24,000. This amounts to an average of $156 per employee.

In addition to the 45 support staff from this agency at the conference - not 145 - 100 other support staff came from all over the state, including the Spokane area, to learn about and discuss topics that are important and relevant to their jobs.

The article mentions a fashion show and a presentation on low-fat cooking as part of the conference agenda. Not mentioned is that the fashion show - which focused on appropriate wear for the workplace - was a discretionary, after-dinner event and all costs were donated by a local corporation. The one-hour, health-related cooking presentation was paid for by private donations. The fact that sufficient planning was done so taxpayer dollars were not used for these activities is something for which conference planners deserve credit, not ridicule.

In the future, if you aim to enhance public dialogue and understanding, take the time to get the facts. When public support for education is eroded due to erroneous information, who benefits? The kids? Do voters gain from something that is intended to incite rather than educate? Judith A. Billings, superintendent of public instruction Olympia

Silver could learn from teachers

I am responding to Lynda Mapes’ article concerning in-service training for teachers.

One reason Rep. Jean Silver doesn’t “have the slightest” idea what teachers did for the money is because she hasn’t asked us. Perhaps a more intensive survey is in order.

I can certainly specify all of the classes I have taken and exactly how they have helped me teach.

I wonder if Rep. Silver can make the same specifications about all the workshops and seminars she has attended over the years? I am sure that they have all been specifically germane to her line of work.

After Rep. Silver’s colleagues take away teachers’ health care and remove hot lunches from our children, could she then provide us with a list of subjects we should pursue to help us deal with today’s students? We are trying to do everything we can to help children learn. If we work after hours to coach or chaperone or tutor, are we expected to do it for nothing?

Should we not take advantage of classes that lead to a more healthy lifestyle, to help us endure the stress of the classroom? Must we go another three years without a cost-of-living increase? Try asking an attorney or a doctor to perform additional tasks for free.

Please tell us what to do, Rep. Silver, so we can be better teachers for less pay. Dan Ford Spokane

Education values out of whack

In response to the article, “In-service training is out of control, state says,” it is surprising to us (in the Sacajawea Middle School science department) that Rep. Jean Silver, too, plays the game of reporting bits and pieces of information.

As one of the teams of teachers that went on the Mount St. Helens field trip, we take offense at Rep. Silver’s implication that this was a mere “scam” for higher pay.

Let us briefly outline the design and intent of this project:

1. We paid for all of our expenses, including air fare, room and board.

2. We received only one day of substitutes; the rest of the time was our own (Saturday and Sunday), for which we were not paid.

3. Weyerhaeuser Corp. was gracious and generous enough to take us on guided tours of the devastation zone and provide us with scientific knowledge of the most catastrophic event in the history of our state.

4. We did not receive salary increases for this or credits of any sort. There were no “strings attached.”

As a result of this intensely focused 10-hour-day weekend, the science department of Sacajawea Middle School of School District 81 designed a crossdisciplinary Mount St. Helen’s day curriculum using all of the knowledge, activities and experiences gained from this workshop. Last May 18, the entire school participated in this daylong event.

If this is what Rep. Silver categorizes as superfluous and irrelevant to content area (science), then perhaps she needs to re-examine her educational values. Liz Kordash Sacajawea Middle School science department

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Bartel gave seniors good advice

Frank Bartel’s advice to seniors in his Feb. 1 column, “Write to elected representatives before you send money to lobbyists,” makes a lot of sense. But the Senior Coalition would have been a much better example of a money-grabbing, self-serving lobby than the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

I met committee president Martha McSteen while on a Close-Up Senior Leaders tour in Washington, D.C., last fall. I was impressed not only by the knowledge and sincerity of McSteen and her staff, but also by the visible proof of their lobbying efforts. One group was shown cartons of letters - not Xeroxed postcards - written by seniors and ready to be delivered to Congress.

I later joined the organization, so I now receive legislative alerts from it. The most recent message concerns the balanced budget amendment that has already passed the House of Representatives Now it’s up to seniors and others to urge their senators to protect Social Security by opposing this amendment.

We all know Social Security isn’t responsible for the nation’s debt. The program is totally self-funded and in no way contributes to the federal deficit.

As a member of other senior organizations, including the American Association of Retired Persons and Older Women’s League, I have learned to trust groups that work in coalition with each other. Grass-roots efforts are the main focus and requests for donations are optional. Scam artists whose main pitch is for us to send money to support their efforts in “representing” us are not to be trusted. Elinor Nuxoll Spokane

Democrats created dependent poor

The Democrats have succeeded in one thing. They have created a dependent American underclass.

Ever since we started paying single young women to have babies, we’ve made reproduction a cottage industry for those not trained or educated to do anything else.

This meddling by the government has radically weakened family integrity and the very idea that every family should have a man to help raise the children. Every one of today’s dominant social problems stems from this.

In their vision for the new American underclass, the Democrats overlooked one thing: their underclass doesn’t vote. The “fix” for this was the motor-voter law passed by the last Congress. Clinton’s Attorney General Janet Reno is now suing several states over implementation. We voters are putting up with more and more lawsuits by liberals trying to ram their ideology down our throats. P. Norman Nelson Colbert

There’s risk in undoing wage law

Republican legislators may be shooting themselves in the foot by repealing federal and state prevailing wage laws.

If they totally destroy collective bargaining in the construction industry with this legislation, they had better talk to their grandfathers first, because labor unions can hold a stronger hand in this country when they set their own wages at conventions, rather than through collective bargaining. President Roosevelt made collective bargaining popular and winning World War II was the result.

Too many forget the level labor relations can reach with existing labor law. Organized labor was well established long before collective bargaining became the norm.

Some of you old Republicans had better explain how Mr. Taft worked so hard to get labor unions in the position they are today. Isn’t it funny that fewer and fewer people have contractual relationships with their employers and more and more people look to government today than at any time in our history?

Organized labor’s rights under our First Amendment are still intact. The hourly work force in this country has long been silent. You better not wake it up. David Morse Spokane

Bills impact more than day care

Congratulations to Nancy Gerber for her Feb. 3 letter regarding the “Contract with America.” Such letters may help to educate the people of Spokane and Washington about HB1010 and other bills like it, and the damage they can cause.

I’m still concerned, however, with the misunderstandings evident regarding these bills in their entirety.

These bills will affect children all over America. Federal funding for food programs will be lost, providers will no longer be licensed with the state and simple registration will be all that’s required of providers, as Ms. Gerber pointed out.

Many providers will have to close or operate with expenses in the red. State-paid day care benefits will not cover this lost cost of meals for poor children, meaning providers will be unable to accept state-paid children.

Americans already bemoan the state of day care in our society, and these bills will surely drop the bottom out of the bucket. With so many single parents and such a low pay scale in Spokane right now, unemployment rates are sure to skyrocket when parents realize the rising cost and limited alternatives for day care.

This says nothing about the effects these bills will have on our agricultural economy. The estimated toll on our dairy farmers alone, who provide commodities to day cares, is staggering.

And how many senior citizens are aware that the block grants allocated to the states would include Social Security benefits? How many senior citizens can afford a cut in, or a loss of, Social Security benefits?

You tell me, America. Melody Dingman, director Toddle Inn, Spokane

Foster no better than Elders

According to the Feb. 3 Spokesman-Review, “Hank is a consummate politician … (Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders and Henry Foster) may share some similar viewpoints, but he will sound totally different and totally acceptable.”

“Foster’s selection has been applauded by Planned Parenthood Federation of America,” the largest abortion provider in the United States. He has been approved by the major dispenser of contraceptives for teens and the most litigious “social service” agency. How can he favor abstinence when he is endorsed by Planned Parenthood, which is suing several school districts across the country for teaching abstinence?

America doesn’t need a cleaned up version of Joycelyn Elders. Dr. Henry Foster’s appointment as surgeon general is a shell game. He has the same agenda Elders’ had: sex for teens, just no babies.

We’ve had enough funding and promotion of masturbation in Washington, D.C., and at the Centers for Disease Control. It’s time to really clean up our act and realize that reducing illegitimate births requires a reduction in illegitimate sex. Sens. Slade Gorton and Patty Murray need to hear that we need a positive change. Suzanne Schulz Reardan, Wash.

IN IDAHO

Leaders, heed growth concerns

I wish to commend Nils Rosdahl for his Feb. 1 column on managing growth (“Public involvement crucial to dealing effectively with rapid growth”).

As a concerned citizen of Coeur d’Alene, I am glad to see someone else can see the rapid growth in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area is a problem.

Hopefully, our city and county leaders will follow the guidelines mentioned in Rosdahl’s article as they decide the many growth issues facing North Idaho and Eastern Washington at this time. Marianne Cieryca Coeur d’Alene

Citizen oversight a necessity

I wish to commend The Spokesman-Review staff for publishing Nils Rosdahl’s article, “Public involvement is crucial to dealing effectively with rapid growth,” in the Feb. 1 Business section. Mr. Rosdahl’s article is both timely and reasoned.

Kootenai County residents and elected local officials who are bewildered and unprepared by the too-rapid growth in the county would do well to heed the sound advice given by Mr. Rosdahl in his column.

Few residents can be fairly labeled “no growthers” or even NIMBYs. But many are concerned about inappropriate development decisions, about the impact of unplanned growth on the community’s infrastructure and taxes, and about rapid growth’s impact on the lake, aquifer and rural county lands. Rosdahl’s checklist is sensible and his observation that citizens’ whining about development proposals at public hearings is ineffectual is accurate. If county residents truly wish a livable community, then planning, research and shouldering the burdens of citizenship are essential.

So, readers, start the process by studying Rosdahl’s article and then get out in your community and get involved! Denise Clark Coeur d’Alene

Keep helpful article close at hand

I would like to congratulate Nils Rosdahl on the very fine step-by-step procedural guide for planning and zoning issues in Kootenai County. It was an excellent presentation and people concerned about their neighborhoods should definitely stick this article up on their refrigerators. Most neighborhood groups should use this article as a guide for appealing to the planning process. Steve Badraun Coeur d’Alene planning and zoning commissioner

Micron an overgrowth opportunity

Have you tried launching a boat at an area lake on a weekend lately? Or getting a campsite at a campground? Have you seen the traffic on the freeway or Trent during rush hour? Remember those grooves in the freeway?

Growth is inevitable, but do we have to welcome a business like Micron with open arms? I hope not. Ten thousand new people? One million gallons of water a day from the aquifer?

I urge everyone concerned to attend a public meeting at Templin’s Resort in Post Falls, 6 p.m., Feb. 16, and let Micron know how you feel. Robert Bly Newman Lake

Fox no friend of public education

Anne Fox is a demanding state schools superintendent. I wish the demands were aimed toward improving education.

Asking for a lowered budget for education while requesting a raise for her own department seems counterproductive, especially since the “generous” budget increases of recent years were meant to bring Idaho closer to the national average after years of funding that came nowhere near matching the rising cost of schools.

From her personnel changes, she appears to be demanding attention to her own ideas from her coworkers. I’ve always thought dialogue is good, but Ms. Fox makes it abundantly clear she wants no part of any ideas from rank-and-file teachers. She wants dialogue only if she’s certain to hear what she wants to hear.

Many have said of Ms. Fox, “I hope they give her a chance.” A chance to do what? Further erode already weak support of education? Take away collective bargaining so that teachers who bow and respectfully tug their forelocks get merit pay and the rest get whatever a penurious school board wants to give them? Make disagreement with the state superintendent a felony?

No state can reform education if its leader brooks no differences of opinion. Nor can any real reform take place where the principal criterion is that the reform cut costs.

Unless Ms. Fox stops using power and starts trying to improve education, we will be faced with a most difficult choice: watch our public schools deteriorate or find a way to replace Anne Fox. C. Ivan Benson Priest River

Governor wrong every which way

It is a sad state of affairs when we have a governor who warmly accepts shipments of nuclear waste into our state but violently opposes having wild salmon in the streams and wolves in the woods! Wade Gruhl Moscow