Letters To The Editor

Tue., Dec. 9, 1997

HIGHER EDUCATION

West’s proposal a nonstarter

Sen. Jim West’s proposal for an Eastern Washington University-Washington State University merger is ridiculous on its face.

In his letter to presidents Sam Smith (WSU) and Mark Drummond (EWU), that demands the schools put together a detailed merger proposal, West said, “I’ve come to the conclusion that having a single public fouryear higher education system serving the Spokane region will better serve the students and the community as a whole.”

First, he has no right to make such a demand. In the 1980s, the Legislature created the Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop and implement higher education policy. West knows the HEC Board was created in part to prevent meddling by legislators.

Second, there is no way EWU and WSU could produce a “detailed plan” for a merger in the time allotted. The proposal is an insult to everyone associated with the two schools. If the proposal is serious it indicates either an appalling lack of understanding of the issues involved or complete indifference to the impacts on EWU and WSU. If it’s just political posturing it reflects a callous disregard for the consequences to the institutions and individuals affected. EWU’s search for a new president, especially, has already been compromised by the uncertainty the proposal will create.

West’s arrogant demands are inappropriate. The schools’ presidents should gently but firmly decline to play and remind West the Legislature has established procedures for considering such issues - procedures he should follow. Steve Blewett, associate professor Journalism program director, Eastern Washington University

Educators deserve better compensation

“Professionals get welfare-level pay” (Opinion, Nov. 17) reflects the unfair salary system of the Community Colleges of Spokane. The “part-time” status forced on these educators is another instance of an employer underpaying and skimping on benefits for people in Spokane.

Having attended many of the senior extended learning classes sponsored by the community colleges, I can say the teachers have been exceptional and deserve a more fair salary.

We are losing a history teacher to the system because hours spent teaching seniors will put him into a “full-time” category and he would lose his tenure. This teacher has a unique talent for making history come to life for those of us who want to continue learning in our senior years and thus keep our minds alert.

Spokane’s community colleges abound with wonderful, dedicated teachers for our young and older people. Why not fairly compensate these educators for what they contribute to our society? Mary M. Dukes Veradale

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Schools worked well in the 1930s

The Nov. 27 article by Ed Hayes of the Orlando Sentinel regarding classroom overcrowding interested me. It brought to mind my own Great Depression school days in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills. Overcrowding wasn’t a concern and no child was ever turned away. No labor unions existed for professional educators. Still, teachers earned some of the highest salaries.

School districts hadn’t been thought of and all school employees answered to the county commissioners. Parents didn’t demand the unreasonable or blame teachers for their own child-rearing shortcomings. Principals were always men and dressed befitting their profession. They were never heard to utter “you know” in lieu of appropriate terminology. Therefore, students didn’t pick up similar bad habits.

We did not insult our families by cheating or engaging in immorality. We knew how to listen and learn instead of talking while the teacher was teaching. When the unfortunate Dust Bowl families arrived from Oklahoma and elsewhere, teachers gladly added to the suggested maximum of 35 students per room with temporary tables and straight chairs. We also doubled up in the older bench-style desks. Itinerant fruit workers’ children arrived and left as their parents followed the harvest. Children of immigrants from Europe, the Orient and Mexico learned English grammar, but we heard their native tongues all the time without complaining.

Our mixture grew up just in time to fight a huge war.

Yes, as Hayes said, many did “amount to something.” Lillian O. Forster Spokane

IN THE PAPER

And a P-I takeover to you, too

I wish you as much success in promoting the annexation of Eastern Washington University by Washington State University as you achieved in your much-publicized attempt at slanting your editorials and articles toward the Geraghty side during the last Spokane elections. The idea that WSU annexing Eastern Washington University would help the faculty and staff is laughable.

Whenever a small fish is swallowed by a shark, it is digested and excreted. That’s why, without the consent of management, it’s called a “hostile” takeover.

However, if you are determined that a major beneficial annexation happen in the area, let’s ask the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to annex you. Maybe your enrollment - oh, sorry - circulation would improve. Valerie Burnett Cheney

OVER THE LINE

Sandpoint people should help Browns

Re: “Ski hill battle last resort for Brown family” (Nov. 30).

I have read with dismay the plight of the Brown family of Sandpoint. The family has contributed much to the Sandpoint area and it’s time for the people of Sandpoint to come to their assistance.

The two chambers of commerce, the Bonner County Sportsman’s Association and the city and county should come up with ways to put this operation on a paying basis. U.S. Bank should sit down with this community and help solve the problem, possibly with grants.

I am a former Sandpoint resident. I still pay my dues to the Sandpoint Elks. I single-handedly organized the Sandpoint Junior Chamber of Commerce. I am a former member of the Bonner County Sportsmen’s Association and served on the Keep Idaho Green Committee for Bonner and Boundary counties. That is when I first became interested in Schweitzer Basin. It was at a sportsmen’s meeting, when local photographer Ross Hall showed slides of Schweitzer and urged the members to pursue a ski run for the lagging economy.

I lived in Sandpoint for 10 years. I had properties in the city and at Bottle Bay. At that time, I was a regional circulation supervisor for The Spokesman-Review and the Spokane Chronicle, until the end of World War II when I was transferred to the Coeur d’Alene district. My heart is still in Sandpoint. A.C. “Charley” Vingo Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Congress is where the blame lies

Much of what you stated in your Dec. 4 editorial regarding the decision not to call for an independent counsel was within the area where reasonable persons may disagree - good material for the editorial board.

Then, in the last paragraph, you compared the current times to the Watergate era and quoted our local “sage,” Rep. George Nethercutt. If you think the two are comparable, you must have not been in the newspaper business during Watergate.

Nethercutt can be excused for being so mistaken; he is just playing partisan politics. If we want to reform political process, Nethercutt should lobby the leaders of his own party, instead of offering invalid comparisons to an editorial board that should know better.

The lack of credibility lies with those in Congress who want to investigate but will not reform. Not with their current scapegoat, Attorney General Janet Reno. Kevin P. McManus Spokane

Medicare take-away fouls budget

The balanced budget bill that was recently signed by President Clinton contains some very interesting language that changes the Medicare system and your and my ability to obtain medical services that are not covered by Medicare. The bill states, “Any doctor who privately contracts with senior citizens to give them a medical treatment not covered by Medicare will be barred from Medicare for two years.”

As Medicare continues to get further and further in the red, more and more treatments and procedures will not be covered. If you have the misfortune to come down with an illness that is not covered, there will be no way of obtaining treatment unless the doctor and patient break the law. This is not something that might happen some day; it becomes the law on Jan. 1.

It is up to all of us to contact Rep. George Nethercutt and demand that he support H.R. 2497. Also contact Sens. Slade Gorton and Patty Murray and demand that they support S. 1194. Both of these bills, if passed, will repeal the language now in the budget and about to become law.

If this is not stopped we will have socialized medicine and will have no say in what medical procedures we can obtain. One example of a medical procedure that could be eliminated is kidney dialysis, as it is very expensive and many seniors need it to live.

Let’s not allow the bureaucrats the power to decide what, if any, medical treatment we can or cannot have. Contact your representatives today. Floyd H. Stewart Loon Lake

Tell officials nothing doing on treaty

If the draft treaty to be presented at the United Nations’ Kyoto, Japan, Conference on Climate Change is ratified by the United States, it will have a devastating effect on our economy.

The treaty calls on us to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000 to help stop our nonexistent problem of global warming. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., says this treaty will drive up fuel and energy costs by 50 percent and will drive many farmers out of business. The AFL-CIO estimates that up to 1.5 million jobs will be lost.

Even the Department of Energy predicts a 20 percent drop in petroleum production, 30 percent drop in steel shipments, the closure of all aluminum plants by 2010 and a 20 percent to 30 percent loss of chemical manufacturing to other countries. These jobs and factories will move because the treaty exempts 130 nations, including China and Mexico, from the rigid emissions standards.

It is obvious that if 130 nations were to be exempt, the real purpose of the treaty would be economic, not environmental.

The United Nations and the Clinton administration want us to give up our jobs and standard of living so we can better merge into a global government and economy. We don’t have a global warming crisis but we will have an economic crisis if we don’t warm up the phone lines and tell the White House and Congress we don’t want any part of this treaty. Steve Dunham Spokane

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