Building in accountability will take years
Re: “Taxpayers have become the servants in Montgomery County,” Local Editorial, Nov. 26
Taking issue with Montgomery County officials for poor management is noteworthy. However, your solution — to privatize parts of the government — misses the critical weakness in much, if not all, government systems: inefficient, sometimes incompetent personnel producing mediocre outputs.
In the public sector, the process (paper pushing) is considered success. In private enterprise, process is pushed to the sidelines and the focus is on results (paying the bills and having something left over for profit).
Yes, privatization of some government activities is needed, but that alone will not solve the main problem of inefficiency or produce lower taxes. Privatization can be just as, or even more expensive if perceptive company executives control lackluster public budget managers. The fix is not just downsizing government. We must institutionalize systems so they require timely, accessible and common sense accountability. Similarly, public servant pay must be linked to results and merit, not tenure.
This is not an overnight process; the transition will take years. Is anyone up to taking on the challenge?
Michael Brown
Rockville
Other presidents also supported autocratic regimes
Re: “Voters get president — and nation — they deserve,” From Readers, Nov. 29
The inveterate epistler Nelson Marans argues that President Obama and former President Carter abandoned America’s role as defender of the democratic way of life by accommodating the oppressors of democratic efforts to establish governments that reflect our national character.
Marans’ statement is unconnected with reality. Every president in the pos/world/ War II era, including Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan, has supported autocratic and decidedly anti-democratic regimes when it served American interests.
Craig Taylor
Alexandria
To save money on education, go digital
States could cut expenses for books, transportation, and facilities by facilitating the use of K-12 laptop-learning, which would provide an education at much lower cost than current practice. A $20 memory stick, for example, could replace several books for an entire K-12 interactive math course, including tests, so kids could learn any time in any place at their own pace.
By cutting the budget of the U.S. Department of Education by 80 percent, the states could use the money to buy new One Laptop Per Child tablet personal computers, which cost less than $100 each. Maine now provides laptops for its students in grades 7-12 and plans to extend the program to lower grades.
The OLPC Project already provides about 2 million laptops to other countries and that number continues to increase.
G. Stanley Doore
Silver Spring
