Letters to the Editor

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun
NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

Teachers’ Choices and Ours


Opposition to vouchers by the American Federation of Teachers “because public funding of private or religious education transfers precious tax dollars from public schools,” begs comment [“Teachers’ Choices – and Ours,” Editorial, September 10, 2004]. The fundamental contradiction here is that as pupils leave public schools the money is no longer required by the system.


The non sequitur “religious education” requires illumination. Many, if not most, parents who abandon failing public schools in favor of parochial schools stipulate that their children are not to receive religious training. Parochial schools provide a secular education better than public schools do and at a steep discount.


To suggest a hypothetical scenario, if New York City were to offer, say, $6,000 vouchers, the following would occur:



  • Parents would effectively have their rights restored by regaining the economic ability to educate their children as they see fit.

  • Children would be better educated.

  • Taxpayers would potentially save more than $6,000 for every child that exits the system, while a preexisting subsidy to parents is cut in half.

  • The private sector would gain $6,000 in new business and an industry would flourish, bringing with it all the innovation that free enterprise can offer. And it hires teachers.

This issue is a moral one. Education is arguably the most socialized field in the United States. The morality of socialism is altruism, in this case the view that we (read: taxpayers) do not exist for our own sake, but must be sacrificed to any comer with a child.


Vouchers serve as a vehicle for partially restoring taxpayers’ property rights as well as parent’s right to determine how their children are educated.


Furthermore, socialism doesn’t work, e.g., witness the substandard performance of the New York City school system. Partially privatizing the system will reverse the present trend of pay more, get less.


The AFT et al. will squeal, of course. But their dishonest, self-serving protestations must be ignored. It’s long past time these people understand that those “precious tax dollars” belong to me.


EDWIN R. THOMPSON
Manhattan



Zell Miller Calls Kerry ‘Weak…Wobbly’


Whenever I read an adjective attached to a report, it shows the bias of the writer. On The New York Sun’s front page is an article written by Josh Gerstein where he uses the words “harshest attacks” [“Zell Miller Spurns Democrats, Calls Kerry ‘Weak…Wobbly,'” September 2, 2004]. Perhaps, it would have been best to say that this was the first night that someone decided to tell things about Senator Kerry that the elite reporters should have told Americans for the past year.


Did I hear anyone call attacks against President Bush “harsh” during the primaries? Has any pundit working unofficially called the Democrats attacking Mr. Bush on a continuous basis, “harsh” and “liars”? Has any reporter corrected the lies that Mr. Kerry has told? When the Swift boat commercials came out, there was this ho hum, he made a slight mistake when he said he was in Cambodia in Christmas 1968.


At the convention, a brave American, Senator Miller, a Democrat, which makes it hard for the liberal press to swallow, told the truth about the things that nobody wanted the American voters to know. These are the things that Mr. Kerry voted against in the Senate and the press has gone crazy.


The Democratic talking points are that it was mean and harsh, the same words they always have used. It will not work this time. We are at war and this election is too important. Would Edward R. Murrow do this kind of reporting?


DOROTHY WACHSSTOCK
Bayside, N.Y.



Brooklyn Woman vs. Machine


I think it is appropriate to point out how ridiculous it is to say that Assemblywoman Adele Cohen is part of any political machine [“In the New Brooklyn, It’s Woman vs. Machine,” Jack Newfield, Page One, August 31, 2004]. She is a dynamo, but definitely not a cog in anyone’s “machine.” She is independent. She is outspoken. And she has been there, side-by-side with a lot of other people working to make life better for everybody in Coney Island and Brighton Beach.


Most ordinary citizens who live in Brooklyn make a decision about whom to vote for by looking at the record of activity and achievement of the opposing candidates. Many others and I in the Russian-speaking community decided to support Mrs. Cohen for re-election this year because she has been actively involved in our neighborhoods and has been very effective on behalf of community residents.


Prior to the candidacy of the challenger, Inna Kaminsky, she was unknown to me and virtually every activist in our community. No one understands better than I that everybody has to start somewhere, but this candidate, Mrs. Kaminsky, has not yet publicly shown any interest or concern about her community or her neighbors and I think that is significant.


MARK DAVIDOVICH
Owner, Seaside Car Service
Democratic Party State Committeeman/District Leader 46th Assembly District, Brooklyn



Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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