Our Readers’ Views

Poor children need quality education

Poverty has many negative effects on children. They face more hardships than children with money because of many things such as poor health care, lack of nutrition and low self-esteem. However, one unfair issue is the education of children in poverty. It is not nearly as effective as education in nonpoverty schools.

Children living in poverty do not receive the quality education that those with money do and more support must be provided for these children within schools. Children of the working poor are left in some of the worst schools around the country. These schools do not receive enough money to have simulating teaching methods for children. This is proven by their test scores. Children in poverty score on average between 11 and 25 percentage points less than those children whose parents make up to three times above the poverty line. More money and better teachers must be provided within schools for these children. With quality education children living in poverty are just as smart as kids whose families have money. Poor children are not stupid; they just have not received quality education.

Sara Walker

Vancouver

Don’t blame Arizona for stepping up

Ah, immigration reform. Means so many different things to many different people. To some it would mean letting anyone come into our country and do whatever they want. No questions asked. In fact, once you’re here, we’ll even help. Need a driver’s license? No problem. School? You bet, even college, if you want. Medical care? You got it. How dare we not allow a person the ability to make a better life for themselves? How dare we deny civil rights, guaranteed by our Constitution to those who live here legally, to those who would sneak in clandestinely?

On the other hand, we are a nation of laws. Those who have no regard for our laws should be held accountable, citizen or not. Those who sneak into our country and those who aid and abet (employers hiring illegals) should be held accountable. It is the federal government’s responsibility to control our borders.

So far, each new federal administration comes in with their own agenda and the focus changes and we lose ground. Democrats and Republicans alike are guilty. So, I can’t blame Arizona for doing what the feds have neglected. It’s about time someone had the guts to put the law to work and secure our borders.

Richard Brumfield

Vancouver

Encourage political progress

When the Tea Party movement first launched, they were rightly concerned about deficit spending by the Democrats on top of an already-critical federal debt. Now, President Obama has heard the cries of the Tea Party, and he has called for solutions, “Everything has to be on the table.”

I would have expected William Kercher (May 4 letter, “Obama’s hypocrisy is showing”) to somewhat agree with this decision. However, he wrote to complain that such a call for solutions (including potential tax increases) is “beyond hypocrisy.” Obama spends like a drunken sailor, then lectures us on the debt? How dare he.

I don’t seriously expect politicians to be any more consistent with their principles than my dog. When she does wrong, I punish her. When she does right, I reward her. Likewise, I think it is best for voters to give their elected representatives encouragement, not more name calling, when they change their positions for the better. Doing what is right half of the time is far better than none of the time, even if none of the time is consistent.

Abel Dean

Vancouver

Trying to win through intimidation

In his May Day commencement address at the University of Michigan, President Obama urged Americans to fear his opponents’ “vilification and over-the-top rhetoric.” He claimed their talk constrains compromise, demeans democratic deliberation, negates learning, coarsens culture, and, most ominously, provokes “the most extreme elements of our society” to potential violence. Really?

Obama’s actual presidential stature — and the media attention it commands — in combination with his presumptive intellectual, oratorical, and political skills should make him secure from baseless attack. That he feels so vulnerable to criticisms, which — by his implicit admission — somehow overcomes all these advantages indicates instead that his critics have legitimate constitutional and prudential grounds for objecting to his conduct. And that his resort to manipulative fear-mongering to try to intimidate his opponents into silence is merely a desperate attempt of a failed leader to overcome the consequences of his own incompetence.

Barack Obama is no longer a mere community organizer. He is now president, elected by appealing to higher, post-partisan standards. Having failed at that, he now seeks merely to shame his critics. Yet, by exploiting his status to defame opponents, while claiming to be a victim of their defamation, he shames only himself.

John Burke

Vancouver

Lenders prey on the inexperienced

With America’s ever growing debt crisis, many people are struggling to stay afloat and are forced to join the ever encompassing world of alternative lending such as payday loans, car title loans, credit cards, etc. Many Americans find themselves on the road to bankruptcy due to the fact that many of these alternative lenders practice predatory lending, preying on the financially illiterate.

The U.S. government should make harsher regulations for predatory lending and make it mandatory that all public high schools provide a financial literacy class. Predatory lenders specifically look for people who are in financial binds and are willing to make minimum payments for the rest of their lives, sometimes even pre-approving the disabled or even dead.

According to the documentary “Maxed Out” by James Scurlock, the average American household owes $9,205 in credit card debt and $13,000 in interest. There is little government oversight on these companies, allowing them to charge relatively whatever price they feel appropriate. It’s vital for the future of this nation to require that all public high schools provide a financial literacy class so that we can grow as a nation and arm ourselves against predatory lending in hopes of ending bankruptcy and poverty in the working poor.

Jessica Thompson

Camas

Ask politicians whom they serve

During the recent Senate hearings Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman-Sachs, was asked whom should they serve. Their client, their company or their country? Maybe we should ask the senators whom they serve: their party or their country? Sadly, too often we know the answer.

Ward Upson

Vancouver