Budget of at least one county office still growing
Re: “Leggett warns of another round of big cuts,” Sept. 27
Examiner reporter Brian Hughes stated, “The county recently adopted a spending plan that calls for virtually no growth in agency spending.” That isn’t quite true.
The Office of Inspector General’s appropriated budget for FY 2011 is $659,310, a 3.9 percent increase over FY 2010. Unfortunately, Montgomery IG Tom Dagley won’t be around to spend it; he announced in August that he is stepping down before the new County Council takes office in December.
Elsa L. Fridl
Former office manager,
Office of Inspector General of Montgomery County
Pay for school improvements by taxing rich
Re: “Five ways to improve public schools,” Sept. 26
This article about lengthening the school day and year, mentoring teachers and principals and more fully involving parents in their children’s education contained very good ideas. However, all of them would require additional funding. Where, pray tell, would this money come from?
Why, from taxes, of course. The top 2 percent of rich Americans should be glad to have their taxes raised a tiny bit to help improve the lives of our coming generations of citizens and taxpayers.
Edd Doerr
Silver Spring
Improve education by abolishing public schools
Re: “Five ways to improve public schools,” Sept. 26
David Colburn and Brian Dassler are wrong. If public schools are not producing the desired results, why should we increase the time students spend in them? Proposing longer school days — and more per year — is not only counterproductive but crazy.
Public schools do not teach students the bulk of things they need to learn but are merely a means to warehouse kids so they are not running wild on the streets and to brainwash them with the current political party line. There is a reason home-schooled children do better. Anyone who expects a real education from public schools is deluding themselves.
What we need is unfettered competition and choice. Abolish all the public schools and let everyone choose their own schools. The free market would quickly establish a network of good schools, as well as quickly shake out the bad ones. Quality and cost would improve as the remaining schools were forced to innovate in order to compete.
William Adams
Springfield
